Some will say Barcelona have been walking on a tightrope, or at least using one to balance all their defenders on it as they play an insanely high line game after game, with the huge chasm between them and the goalkeeper routinely being exploited by opponents as they try to gain an advantage over the Catalan side’s insanely talented squad.
Most teams don’t manage it, but Girona did. Thomas Lemar put his side ahead and a late Fran Beltrán tap-in saw the LaLiga holders slip up in their battle the stay at the top, despite a headed equaliser from Pau Cubarsí gave Barcelona more than half an hour to find a winner.
The game was a tense affair, splattered with a number of flashpoints throughout that have clearly rubbed the Barça squad up the wrong way. Lamine Yamal’s penalty miss saw a number of players encroach the box before he made contact with the ball, but the spot kick was not retaken.
Ahead of the winner, Echeverri appeared to make contact with Koundé’s foot and some judge that the goal should have been ruled out - everyone of a Barcelona persuasion included. However, it stood and Girona took the three points. Raphinha, as mentioned, took himself off in a huff and expressed his frustration on social media with incredibly suggestive comments.
“We have a lot to improve on, but not just us,” Raphinha posted on social media.
“It’s very complicated when the rules are different whether it’s for you or against you, but if we have to play against everyone to win, it’s OK... We’re going to do it.”
His comments don’t come in isolation. This weekend, ahead of the game, the club filed a formal complaint with the Spanish Football Federation and the Refereeing Committee about what they see to be refereeing inconsistencies in Spanish football.
In their complaint that sounded more like the letter from an angry, albeit admittedly very eloquent, toddler to a parent, they cited a supposed “lack of consistency in disciplinary criteria”, “contradictory criteria in handball decisions", an “accumulation of significant errors", “doubts regarding the use and proper application of VAR", and “the absence of clear and consistent criteria when referees are sent to review incidents.”
They add that “this initiative is not intended to question the professionalism of the refereeing community, but rather to call for an urgent review of the criteria applied” when it comes to “equal treatment between clubs.”
Their recent LaLiga loss, and Raphinha’s subsequent incendiary comments, will only add to the already ruinous narrative in Spanish football that referees are not fit for purpose.