Hernández Hernández whistles at the Bernabéu four years later

On Saturday the Bernabéu will look closely at the referee’s performance. The one designated for the game against Valencia is Hernández Hernández, one of the referees whom Real Madrid looks on with suspicion and who will submit to the scrutiny of the white public for the first time in almost four years. It has rained since the last game that the reef refereed at the Bernabéu: it was on February 10, 2018 in a clear victory (5-2) over Real Sociedad in the last season before the introduction of VAR in the Spanish League.

Since then, Hernández Hernández has directed ten games to Real Madrid, but all away from home except one, which was at the Di Stéfano behind closed doors: Villarreal’s visit to Valdebebas (2-1) in July 2020 in which the white team was proclaimed champion of ‘La Liga del confinamiento’ in the absence of a day. After that match, the canary has returned to referee Madrid four games, all at home. The last, this same season, in the third match against Betis (0-1) with a goal from Carvajal.

Although the balance of Madrid with Hernández Hernández is favorable to the whites (15 victories, 5 draws and 7 defeats in 27 games), the one from Lanzarote is the protagonist of a long list of decisions by which Madrid feels aggrieved. The most recent, in the derby played last March at the Wanda. González González urged him from the VOR room to review Felipe’s hand in the area that Hernández Hernández did not consider punishable when he examined it on the monitor. It is the only time that the canary has not endorsed what a colleague from the VAR has seen. A play that a posteriori was key to the future of the League, taking into account the 1-1 with which the clash ended and the two points that separated Atlético and Madrid in the resolution of the championship in favor of the rojiblancos.

It is the last but not the only decision by which Madrid feels harmed in its arbitrations, especially in the four Clásicos that Hernández Hernández has refereed.. In the same 2019-20 season in which Madrid were proclaimed champions, two penalties to Varane went into limbo at the Camp Nou, one from Rakitic and the other from Lenglet. Especially controversial was the Clásico de la 17-18 in the Barça coliseum, where he also did not point a penalty from Jordi Alba to Marcelo (a crash in which he forgave Alba himself, when he already had a yellow, for grabbing the neck of Modric) and conceded the 2-1 to Barça in a play at the beginning of which Varane claimed a foul by Luis Suárez. The previous season (2016-17), at the Bernabéu, he expelled Ramos and was inhibited in a penalty from Umtiti to Cristiano and a year before he canceled a goal against Bale at the Camp Nou for a foul in the jump to Jordi Alba.

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Referees of day 20 of LaLiga Santander (January 8, 9 and 10)

Levante-Mallorca (Saturday 8, 14:00)
Referee: Figueroa Vazquez. | VAR Arbitrator: Iglesias Villanueva.

Real Sociedad-Celta (Saturday 8, 16:15)
Referee: Fernández block. | VAR Arbitrator: Estrada Fernández.

Granada-Barcelona (Saturday 8, 18:30)
Referee: González Fuertes. | VAR Arbitrator: Soto Grade.

Real Madrid-Valencia (Saturday 8, 21:00)
Referee: Hernández Hernández. | VAR Arbitrator: Medié Jiménez.

Rayo Vallecano-Betis (Sunday 9, 14:00)
Referee: Muñiz Ruiz. | VAR Arbitrator: Estrada Fernández.

Seville-Getafe (Sunday 9, 16:15)
Referee: Martínez Munuera. | VAR Arbitrator: Sánchez Martínez.

Alaves-Athletic (Sunday 9, 18:30)
Referee: Jaime Latre. | VAR Arbitrator: Munuera Montero.

Osasuna-Cádiz (Sunday 9, 18:30)
Referee: From Burgos Bengoetxea. | VAR Arbitrator: Iglesias Villanueva.

Villarreal-Athletic (Sunday 9, 21:00)
Referee: Alberola Rojas. | VAR Arbitrator: González González.

Espanyol-Elche (Monday 10, 21:00)
Referee: Gil Manzano. | VAR Arbitrator: From Cerro Grande.