VAR official breaks silence on Lewandowski’s disallowed goal vs Sociedad – ‘Nothing more to say’

Barcelona are set to head into the third international break of the season following a narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of Real Sociedad.

However, the Catalans could have easily sealed a point had it not been for VAR disallowing Robert Lewandowski’s goal.

The Polish international scored early on in the game, but he was later adjudged to be offside as one of his feet appeared to have been behind the opposition defender.

However, replays later suggested that Lewandowski’s foot was onside and the VAR footage showed the foot of the Sociedad defender instead.

VAR official clarifies decision

With Barcelona once again becoming a victim of inconsistent refereeing decisions in La Liga, the league’s head of VAR, Clos Gomez, has publicly clarified the decision.

Gomez defended the decision to rule out Lewandowski’s goal, citing advanced cameras that have been placed as part of the VAR technology.

“It is a normal explanation. There is a possible offside, the technology comes in and it was assessed as offside, nothing more to say. Technology comes to help football, to help refereeing and, in this case, it also helped,” he said (h/t MARCA).

“Often criticisms are made out of ignorance. It works with 10 additional cameras, something that was not available,” he added.

“There are 29 points tracked on each of the players, one of the points is the foot of each of the players and it went offside, the referee was informed and made the decision. Nothing new, that doesn’t happen in every single match in Primera and Segunda.”

Gomez’s statement indicates he just wants to play down the criticism received by the VAR for ruling out Lewandowski’s clear-cut goal.

After all, several Barcelona fans and even players, including Raphinha, have called out La Liga for the decision which has cost the Catalans dearly – devoiding them of the opportunity to maintain their solid lead over Real Madrid at the top of the league table.

To make things worse, Lewandowski has picked up a fresh injury which will keep him out of action during the upcoming international break.