Jude Bellingham’s red card against Real Madrid and the goal that never was | Top Vip News

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A vibrant La Liga encounter between Valencia and Real Madrid was in the 99th minute when the visitors won another corner.

While Luka Modric ran to execute the set piece, referee Jesús Gil Manzano signaled to the entire stadium that this was going to be the last play of the match.

The match was tied 2-2 as 90 minutes passed and the fourth official’s board showed a minimum of seven minutes left to add. There was then a delay of more than two minutes for a VAR check on a penalty initially awarded to Madrid for a foul on Hugo Duro, but later overturned after Gil Manzano was called to watch a replay on the pitch monitor.

Everyone in the stadium was on edge when Modric’s corner was cleared by Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili. Madrid’s Brahim Díaz quickly regained possession on the edge of the penalty area and worked the space to cross into the six-yard box.

Valencia striker Hugo Duro was now making frantic gestures at the referee, who raised his whistle to his lips and blew three loud whistles, turning and pointing towards the middle of the pitch just as Jude Bellingham headed a Diaz cross past him. to Mamardashvili and entered the net.

The clock read 98:40 when the ball entered the net and Valencia defender Cristhian Mosquera turned in despair, clearly thinking that his team had just lost a game in which they had a 2-0 lead.

But when everyone realized that the final whistle had blown and Bellingham had not added another late goal to their record, Madrid captain Dani Carvajal and his teammates, including Bellingham, Vinicius Junior, Joselu, Andriy Lunin and Antonio Rudiger all ran to face the referee, with Gil Manzano stepping back to give himself space to show Bellingham a red card.


(Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)

At the time, Ancelotti was arguing with the referee, while mini fights broke out in different areas of the pitch, with Bellingham and Vinicius Jr confronting the Valencia players, before the players finally left, five minutes into the match. It had all ended tied.

It came amid a heated atmosphere throughout the match at Mestalla, with Vinicius Jr whistling every time he touched the ball for the first time since suffering racial abuse in the stadium last May. La Liga is also investigating after a video emerged on social media of a boy allegedly calling Vinicius Jr a monkey during Saturday’s match.

The Brazilian celebrated his goals with stinging messages to the stands.


(José Jordan/AFP via Getty Images)

Bellingham was still furious when he left the field and walked through the tunnel, shortly after he continued on social media and reposted on X, formerly Twitter, a message that read: “The referee literally waited for Brahim Díaz to cross the ball! THIS IS A SCANDAL.”

Bellingham soon deleted that message from his account, but other Madrid players were happy to express their outrage. Aurelien Tchouameni’s “That’s shameful” message sparked a response from fellow French midfielder Edouard Camavinga.

Privately, Madrid players and staff were also furious about what happened. One player said it was “disgraceful” of the referees, while another said it was an “unthinkable” decision not to allow the goal, and a third thought it was “incredibly stupid” how the final stages of the game played out.

Even the Valencia Duro player told Movistar TV immediately after the match that the referee had made a mistake.

“When we took the corner (Gil Manzano) said it was the last one,” said Duro, a former Madrid youth player. “I don’t know why he waited to whistle if he had said that. I understand Madrid: they had to whistle when we cleared the ball. He waited until Brahim had the ball and when he was going to cross, he whistled.”

Madrid have dropped two points in the title race and Bellingham could also be suspended for at least three games if he is found to have insulted or threatened the referees.


(David S. Bustamante/Socrates/Getty Images)

Ancelotti seemed well aware of this during his post-match press conference.

“Bellingham didn’t insult the referee, he said in English: ‘It’s a bloody goal,’ which is what we all thought,” Ancelotti said. “He approached the referee, but considering what happened, that was pretty normal. He didn’t insult, at all. Let’s see what is written in the referee’s report.”

The referee’s official match report, Published online an hour after the game, he said: “In the 999th minute (sic), the player (5) Bellingham, Jude Victor William, was sent off for the following reason: After the game and while still on the field of play, he came running towards me aggressively shouting, repeatedly: ‘It’s a fucking goal.’”

That recalled an incident involving La Liga’s other Englishman, Mason Greenwood, who in early January was sent off while playing for Getafe, where he is on loan from Manchester United. Referee Figueroa Vázquez wrote in his report that Greenwood had said: “Fuck you,” but Getafe successfully argued that he had actually said: “Fuck you” and that the forward did not have to serve a penalty.

That will play out over the next few days, with Madrid sure to appeal the red card, and another loud and angry refereeing fight sure to dominate headlines and conversations across Spanish football.

On Saturday night, the Real Madrid website headlined the match report: “An unprecedented refereeing decision prevents Real Madrid from winning at Mestalla.” The caption read: “Bellingham scored the winning goal with the last shot of the game, but Gil Manzano disallowed it because he blew the final whistle while the ball was in the air.”

Real Madrid TV’s coverage of the match was even more critical of Gil Manzano, saying that he had also not conceded enough “extra” stoppage time to cover the time lost during the post-regulation VAR check.

“First Gil Manzano gave a penalty when it was clear that there was no foul and then the VAR had to correct it,” said a commentator from the channel. “And then on the final play, if you allow play to continue and the snap to be hit, you can’t whistle all the time when the ball is in the air.”

Real Madrid TV has regularly criticized referees recently, to the point of producing edited videos to support claims that certain referees are biased against the team, and broadcast them in the days before said referees take charge of a match. Madrid.

Madrid president Florentino Pérez has also frequently publicly criticized the level of Spanish refereeing, although he implicitly said he believed decisions were made against his team, even during VAR reviews. Pérez has also said that his team has been historically harmed by rival Barcelona’s historic payments to former referee chief José María Enríquez Negreira.

Many Madrid fans believe that the bureaucracy is biased against their team. During last weekend’s La Liga match at home against Sevilla, Bernabeu fans regularly chanted “corruption in the federation” when decisions went against their team, including during a VAR review that ruled out a goal from Real Madrid.

Bellingham himself has become increasingly angry with the Spanish referees, receiving three yellow cards in six games between January and February and serving a sanction for accumulating five cautions throughout the season a few weeks ago.

In a coincidence that the Englishman probably won’t find funny, Bellingham’s most recent booking came when Madrid played Almería in late January, another match rife with refereeing controversy. Ancelotti’s team trailed 2-0 at half-time, but came back to win 3-2 after three big VAR-assisted decisions.


Bellingham begins to celebrate its ‘goal’ on Saturday (Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)

Almería were enthusiastic about the treatment they had been given by the referees in that match and there are now widespread doubts about the standards of refereeing among many in Spanish football.

Ancelotti may have never experienced anything like it at the end of Saturday’s game at Mestalla, but something similar happened last season in La Liga. A match between Valladolid and Sevilla was still goalless in injury time when referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias whistled for half-time, just as Valladolid’s Sergio Escudero fired a 30-meter shot that flew into Sevilla’s goal. Ortiz Arias quickly apologized to Valladolid on the pitch, but the decision stood. They lost that game 3-0 and ended up relegated by just one point a few weeks later.

Real Madrid president Pérez and La Liga president Javier Tebas agree on very little, but both have called for control and organization of refereeing in La Liga to be taken away from the Spanish federation. Thebes said The Athletic last summer that the ideal would be to create a new independent body, similar to the situation in the Premier League.

Bellingham had calmed down a bit as he left the stadium, taking time for autographs and selfies with some fans on the way to the Madrid team bus.

Ancelotti was also aware that Madrid players must focus on the things they can control.

“We are still angry, the locker room is very hot, that’s normal,” said the experienced Italian. The Athletic at the postgame press conference. “We have to get back to normal because we have another very important game on Wednesday.”

Madrid should once again focus on the second leg of their midweek Champions League round of 16 tie at home against RB Leipzig. The two-point loss to Valencia shouldn’t matter too much in the La Liga title race, given that they still lead second-placed Girona by seven points and third-placed Barcelona by nine (although both Catalan teams have one game less on Sunday). ).

Real Madrid’s legal team will also work this week on Bellingham’s appeal against a sanction.

What we can be sure of is that the noise and anger over refereeing rules in Spain will grow even louder after what was a surreal and ridiculous end to Saturday night’s match at Mestalla.

(Top photo: Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)

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