Danny Makkelie and Pol van Boekel did not make a very good turn in Spain on Tuesday evening. According to numerous Spanish media, the Dutch arbitration duo was sleeping when Alphonso Davies brought down Ousmane Dembélé in the first half of the game between Bayern Munich and Barcelona (2-0) in their own penalty area. With that, the Catalans seemed to be deprived of a flawless penalty at a 0-0 score, which could have turned the entire match picture. Trainer Xavi was also bitter about that afterwards.
“A catastrophe!” headlines Sport in respect of the penalty kick not awarded. “Davies took down without even touching the ball. A clear penalty, which was not even judged by the VAR”, it sounds critical. Also ASH is crystal-clear in its judgment, although the newspaper does not mention names. “A penalty, killed by all referee bodies present live and connected via fiberglass”, aims ASH to chief arbitrator Makkelie and VAR Van Boekel.
Penalty for Barcelona????? pic.twitter.com/cy7sR4znub
— Qutaiba Khatib (@QutaibaKhatib) September 13, 2022
Mundo Deportivo cites a situation from last season, when Makkelie failed to whistle for an apparent foul by Karim Benzema on Gianluigi Donnarumma during the Real Madrid – Paris Saint-Germain (3-1) in the eighth finals of the Champions League. The Frenchman then scored the important equalizer, which was the basis of steaming through to the quarterfinals. “It’s the same referee. Now he hurt Barça. The protests fell on deaf ears,” the newspaper said.
Lucas Hernández, who provided the opening goal on behalf of Bayern, already acknowledged that it was a penalty. Xavi also thought he saw that, who was visibly irritated after the game. “I asked the referee during halftime to be honest,” the Barcelona coach said afterwards. “He said it wasn’t a penalty.” Due to the loss, the Spanish superpower is in second place in Group C with three points, after last week’s victory over Viktoria Plzen (5-1). The latter club is last in the group, while Bayern and Internazionale are first and third respectively.