Two penalty kicks in the first half hour of the confrontation between Benfica and Barcelona!
A major controversy ignited the confrontation between Benfica and Barcelona, and sparked anger towards Dutch referee Danny Makele, who awarded two penalty kicks in the first half hour of the match.
The Portuguese team hosted its Spanish counterpart, today, Tuesday, in the seventh round of the league stage of the Champions League in the match that ended in favor of the visitors with a score of (5-4) in a historic remontada.
The first controversy occurred in the 13th minute after the Dutch referee announced a penalty kick for Barcelona, from which Robert Lewandowski scored the equalizer (1-1).
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The penalty was awarded by Makele after returning to video technology, following the intervention of Thomas Araujo. The Benfica player, at the foot of Alejandro Balde, a decision that was supported by arbitration expert Pavel Fernandez during his speech on “Radio Marca”.
-But the most controversial thing is what happened in the 28th minute, after the referee blew his whistle announcing that a penalty kick was awarded to the hosts, for obstructing Wojciech Szczesny. Barca’s goalkeeper, for his opponent, Karam Akturkoglu.
The shot began after Aktürkoglu received a pass behind the Barcelona defenders, and found himself alone with Szczesny. The latter had no choice but to try to stop the danger by interfering with his opponent’s foot, so the Dutch referee blew his whistle, announcing a penalty against him.
Although the Barcelona players asked Makele to return to the video technology to review the shot, he stuck to his decision, especially since he did not receive any signal from the mouse room.
Regarding that shot, refereeing expert Barrenecia Monteiro said in his statements to the newspaper “Mundo Deportivo”: “According to what I saw, I think that Szczesny did not touch the Benfica striker. I think that the referee should have gone to the video technology to review the situation.”
The arbitration expert’s talk would add gasoline to the fire of Barcelona’s anger, especially since it was a penalty that caused their team to concede the third goal in the match.
