Soto Grado, usual suspect

He FC Barcelona achieved a bold victory against Rayo Vallecano (1-2) to stay at the top of the league table, but the Blaugrana find themselves once again with a new controversial referee performance Cesar Soto Grade. The Riojan referee did not award a penalty for a knockdown by Lejeune about Dani Olmo as soon as the second part starts and then a goal was disallowed Lewandowski by a weak stomp of Koundé about Pep Chavarria which took place at the beginning of a long attacking play of Barça. Two controversial actions that fell on the local side and harmed the culés.

The controversial performance of Soto Grade in Vallecas it joined three others that the Rioja referee was before the Barça last season. He only whistled for the Barça team in three games and in all of them there were controversial plays. The first is on the opening day of LaLiga in Getafewhen Soto Grade a clear kick from Juan Iglesias about Ronald Araujo in the last game of the game. The referee interpreted that Gavi He had already touched the ball with his hand in the previous action, although the television production images showed how the culé youth player controlled the ball with his shoulder. The rivalry at the Coliseum ended 0-0 and, if the penalty was awarded, the Barça I can add two more points.

The second game to whistle Soto Grade in Barça the weather is on pomegranate nor is it without controversy. The referee, at the request of the referee of VAR Carlos del Cerro Grandedisallowed a goal from João Felix for a millimeter positional offside of Ferran Torres on a lateral foul. It is 2-3 that will give victory to the culés, but Soto Grade the Portuguese objective was not considered valid because From Cerro Grande He told him from the VOR room that “I confirmed that he was offside. I have it clear, the impact of Ferran and he was in position”, despite the fact that the Barça forward did not touch the ball at any time. Soto Grade He listened to his teammate and didn’t even review the play on the fieldside monitor.

The third and final controversy Barça suffered with Soto Grado as referee last season caused the most trouble. It happened in Classic at the Santiago Bernabéu and the Rioja referee did not consider one valid Lamine Yamal ghost goal with 1-1 on the scoreboard. From VAR They analyzed the play to determine whether Luna He managed to get the ball out before it crossed the goal line and they pointed out that there was no clear replay, so the goal did not go up on the scoreboard.

However, the television broadcast images offered a shot in which it was seen how the ball crossed the line before the clearance of Luna. In it Barça They expressed their anger at this game, saying that there was no technology to clearly determine if the ball entered the goal. He Classic culminated in the success of real Madrid 3-2, but if the goal Lamine Yamal would have been correct Barça ahead of 1-2 and the final story could be very different.

That’s another detail Cesar Soto Grade is a referee who does not generate good memories for Barça he is the only referee of the First Division where the Blaugrana has a negative balance of results. With the victory in Vallecas, the Rioja committee team has done justice to ten league matches for the culés, with a balance of three wins, two draws and five defeats. Something surprising given the usual dominance of Barça in the competition and that is returning Soto Grade to the usual suspect.