He Rayo-Barcelona Cup began with a controversial penalty not designated 8 minutes into the game after Catena made an entrance on Trincão inside the area. Cuadra Fernández, referee of the match, did not say anything after consulting with González Fuertes the VAR. For Iturralde González, an analyst at AS and Cadena SER: “There is a Catena penalty on Trincão. It is a penalty of VAR's own maximum when dragging the defender to the Barcelona with the leg that has collected. It's a difficult play to see on the field for the referee. “
The play began with a steal of the ball from Busquets, the midfielder gave the ball to Messi and the Argentine passed it to Riqui Puig, he returned it to the '10' so that he could put a pass into the area to Trincão. The Portuguese fell in the area before the entrance of Catena. The Barça players again called for a penalty in the 43rd minute when Trincão fell back into the area after contesting a ball with Martos. The referee did not indicate anything and Iturralde points out: “There is nothing. It is a game throw.”
The Catalans claimed a third penalty for a knockdown by Catena over De Jong inside the area in the 59th minute. Cuadra Fernández went to the screen and after seeing it, he did not score a penalty and continued the game. Ituralde assures about the play: “There is a grab on De Jong, but it is outside the area.”
Fernandez block he was right to annul a goal to Barcelona for offside by De Jong in the 65th minute. The AS and SER analyst considers the decision to be correct: “The goal was not legal. It is offside for very little, but they decided it very quickly.”