Referee reveals 'error' in favor of Barcelona in the Champions League

Polish referee Szymon Marciniak responded to criticism regarding his performance in the second leg of the semi-finals of the last edition of the Champions League, played between Inter Milan and Barcelona. During an event held in Poland, the judge was questioned by a fan of the Catalan team about the decisions made in the clash held at the San Siro, which ended with the Italian club winning 4-3 in extra time. In his response, Marciniak defended the work of the refereeing team and highlighted the importance of the video referee for the outcome of the calls.

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The duel was marked by two high-impact actions reviewed by the VAR booth. The first involved the award of a penalty committed by defender Pau Cubarsí on striker Lautaro Martínez. The second was a penalty initially awarded in favor of Barcelona for a foul on young Lamine Yamal, which ended up being reversed to a foul outside the area after the video showed that the infraction occurred on the edge of the line.

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When approached about the issue by the fan, Marciniak stated that there was no reason to apologize, highlighting that his original notes on the field benefited the visiting team before VAR intervened.

— To be honest, there is nothing to forgive. For my part, there is nothing to forgive. If we are honest, my initial decisions were in favor of Barcelona. I didn't score the penalty for Inter and VAR called me to show the images. So I gave them a penalty and was corrected because the foul was four or five centimeters outside the box. If we are honest, there were two original decisions in Barcelona's favor, but VAR corrected me. That’s life — declared the Polish referee during his participation in the event.

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Other Barcelona complaints

In addition to the capital moves involving the change of decision with the help of VAR, the Barcelona delegation also registered public complaints in relation to two other specific moves from that semi-final in Milan.

Barcelona complained about the non-marking of a possible handball by Italian defender Acerbi inside his own area and pointed to an alleged foul committed by Denzel Dumfries on full-back Gerard Martín as the origin of the construction of the goal that tied the match and took the match to extra time. The result confirmed the elimination of the Catalan team and the classification of Inter Milan at the time.

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