The match between Girona and Valladolid, played on Friday in Montilivi with a score of 3-0, marked the start of the last day of the year in LaLiga EA Sports, and was the scene of a rather unique action. The protagonists of the scene were Miguel Gutiérrez and David López, following a free kick taken by the Madrid full-back and involuntarily deflected by the Catalan defender, which led to the first goal for the home team.
Miguel took a free kick near the Valladolid area, which put in place the classic defensive block, with a player lying on the ground behind it to prevent a possible low shot under the feet of his teammates. However, in this case, this ploy, used frequently in recent years, has had negative consequences for the pucelanos.
In fact, the Valladolid player who was on the ground was instrumental in favoring David López, making Girona's goal valid: if he had not been in that position, the red and white player would have been offside and the goal would have been disallowed. Confirmation of David's correct position came shortly afterwards, when match operators showed a frozen image of the action, with lines drawn to highlight the players' positions. These lines were drawn manually, as was the case until last season, since the switch to the use of semi-automatic offside was made at the beginning of this year. It was surprising that in this meeting in Montilivi this technology was not used, instead returning to traditional manual measurement. It will be interesting to observe whether the same technique will be used in other matches this day or whether the semi-automatic offside, which was not applied on Friday in Montilivi, will be reinstated.
