Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez (Lorca, 1983) his fifth Classic will be whistled today. In the previous four, Barcelona was the winner in three and Real Madrid in one. The only white victory came in 2017, in the final of the Super Cup, which ended with a 2-0. The following games fell on the Barça side: 0-3 on matchday 17 in the 2017-18 season; the 5-1 of the tenth day in 2018-19 and that cost Lopetegui his place; and also in 2018-19 Barcelona won 0-3 in the Cup semifinals.
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The Murcian braid, who was chosen as the best Spanish referee of the 2019-20 season, He was also present in the first leg Classic last season, but as a VAR referee. He was the one in charge of notify Martínez Munuera (in the field) of Lenglet’s grab on Ramos inside the area and that prevented him from finishing off a hanging ball. A warning that would end in a penalty in favor of the whites and that would lead to undo the tie.
Sánchez Martínez is characterized by his strong character on the field. He admitted this in an interview with AS in 2020: “I base my way of refereeing on three pillars that I consider essential values: consistency, firmness and courage. I like to have a firm control of the game“. He is one of the ones that gets the most cards on average per game and is not a friend of protests, being one of the braids that punishes them the most, both of the footballers and of those who are on the benches. In that same interview he also pointed out something that this season has been reaffirmed in the world of refereeing, that the one who makes the decision is the field braid: “Let’s not forget one thing, the arbitration remains that of the one in the field, the VAR is a support tool. There is a referee on the field and that is the one who decides. “ This is better explained with another piece of information, Sánchez Martínez is one of the five First-class referees who have not been corrected this season by the VAR.
The global balance of parties called by Sánchez Martínez is favorable for Barcelona: 19 victories, two draws and three defeats. Regarding the Madrid, with him they achieved 13 wins, five draws and five losses.
And at the controls of the tool will be González González. Referee specialized in VAR tasks and that he is part of one of those elite corps that Velasco Carballo has created for this season. Castilian and Leonese It is the most used for these functions (this will be the 17th game in ten days) and also one of the ones that most rectifies his teammates (7). Usually enter more into subjective plays (5) than in factual ones (2). Although she is one of the fastest VAR referees to review the plays and call her teammates. As an assistant there will be another specialized VAR referee, Iglesias Villanueva. The Galician, who hung the whistle three seasons ago, is also one of the most used in the VOR. Unlike González González, tends to correct their teammates more on factual moves (offside) than subjective. Another point in favor is that he is the fastest referee reviewing plays, even more than González González, who has very low times.