Barcelona and Valencia drew 1-1 Sunday, moving Real Madrid two points closer (although still very far away) to their rivals at the top of the table in La Liga. That result, though, was tainted by what should have been the opener via Lionel Messi and poor goalkeeping from Valencia's Neto being declared not a goal by the referee.
Take a look for yourself:
The ball clearly crosses the line, and if La Liga had goal-line technology the referee's watch surely would have buzzed, signalling a goal. Would that have guaranteed a Barcelona victory? Of course not. But it would have changed the game in such a way that Barcelona would have been in the driver's seat.
To his credit, Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde was cool about it after the game, saying "I think we all agree that in these plays so evident, the topic of VAR is not about re-refereeing the games, but it was clear that it had crossed and that we are still with this issue puts us on the spot. The other day against Malaga there was a ball that went out, we scored and it benefited us."
Valencia's Rodrigo opened the scoring in the 60th minute and Jordi Alba equalized via a magical pass from Messi.
That assist from #Messi @FCBarcelona goal from @JordiAlbapic.twitter.com/szRqS9UX6G
— Leo Raaz (@RaazRafa) November 27, 2017
We'll never know how the game would have turned out. Maybe we wouldn't have gotten to see that pass. Barcelona would rather have that first goal, though.
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