Since 2018, the video referee technology "VAR" is a major factor in determining the result of the Spanish Football Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Before today's match, this technique was used only twice, and it is remarkable that Jose Martinez - the referee who runs today's match - was the one who resorted to the mouse in the previous two times.
These two orphan times prompted the fans to express their dissatisfaction that this technique does not interfere enough in the Clasico matches, and despite that, the technique was decisive in the "Camp Nou".
The first time was in 2018, when the "mouse" intervened to alert referee Martinez that there was a mistake committed by Real defender Rafael Varane, on Barca striker Luis Suarez inside the penalty area, so the referee reviewed the screen and awarded a penalty kick in Barca's 5-1 victory at the Camp Nou.
Last season, the "Var" intervened again and informed the referee Martinez that there was a mistake committed by the French Clement Lenglet against Ramos, to award a penalty kick to the Royal in a match that the latter won 3-1 in the Catalan team's stronghold.
As for the prominent cases in which the mouse did not intervene and the fans demanded the referee to take decisions in them, it was after calculating a penalty kick in favor of Suarez in the 2018 Clasico, as the latter trampled on the Real Madrid defender Nacho’s man and demanded the Real fans to expel the “Pistolero”, and the following Clasico witnessed a similar incident. , when he stomped to boil him on Varane's thigh.
And in El Clasico last year at Real Madrid, Barcelona demanded a penalty kick after what was considered a foul, committed by Ferland Mendy on Martin Brathwaite inside the penalty area.
Barca coach Ronald Koeman said at the time that he "does not know how the mouse works in Spain, everyone saw the accident."