After having a sleep to calm down a bit, I think I have decided that the referee allowing the persistent, cynical, dangerous fouling by Newcastle players bothers me more than the offside goal.
It was offside—and I think Donnarumma was fouled in the build up—but at least that decision was genuinely tight. The outcome gives the impression of manipulation to get a desired result, but that was only possible because it was so close to begin with.
But the blatant “cycle of kicking” on Cherki, the repeated holds and late challenges to prevent promising counters, and the cynical fouling (barges, stamps, elbows, and the studs up challenge on Phil in the box) weren’t “close” decisions. They were obvious, conscious choices not to adequately protect or players and punish players for violating the laws of the game.
And the ref didn’t even call all the actual fouls. He gave “advantages” several times that were anything but, and let a few fairly obvious fouls go for reasons that are only known to him. I think they really got one yellow for likely ~18 fouls, whilst we got a yellow for every 2.66 fouls. That screams intention.
Seeing Cherki kicked out of the game (and Haaland constantly bear hugged with little consequence) was infuriating and I am fairly sure it was the main topic of Pep’s visit to the official’s dressing room.
VAR getting the tight offside call wrong is one thing, but watching the officials (including VAR) ignore (arguably even encourage) Newcastle’s anti-football tactics over and over and over again was absolutely infuriating. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it right now (maybe because I was often on the end of it during my more humble playing days).
Oh, and I think the pull back of Doku in full stride as he was running into the box was as much a penalty as Schar’s ankle breaker on Phil.
One bad decision in a game can happen. Two bad decisions can be mistakes. Three bad decisions can be incompetence.
But four or more bad decisions, in the era of VAR?
That stretches credibility.
