Miracle at the Bernabéu! VAR saves Barça from an invented penalty by Lamine on Vinicius

Published New:26/10/2025 - 16:45h

Updated New:26/10/2025 - 16:45h

It took César Soto Grado a minute and a half to help Real Madrid in the Clásico against Barça. The referee initially called a nonexistent penalty by Lamine Yamal on Vinicius, but luckily the VAR corrected the Riojan judge's mistake

Javier Iglesias Villanueva, from VAR, saved FC Barcelona from a monumental robbery right at the start of the Clásico against Real Madrid. Before the 2nd minute of the match, César Soto Grado signaled a non-existent foul by Lamine Yamal on Vinicius Jr. while disputing a ball inside the area.

The play began with a possible offside by the '7' when attacking the space, but the VAR only focused on the point of contact between the '10' of Barça and Vini. Iglesias Villanueva confirmed that the Barça forward plants his foot first and the Brazilian hits him after.

Therefore, he calls Soto Grado to review the play on the monitor. Miraculously, the referee from La Rioja reversed his decision, awarding an indirect free kick to Barça. Since VAR has been used in LaLiga (2019/20), 3 penalties have been overturned due to intervention by the technology, 2 in favor of Madrid and 1 to the Azulgrana team.

VAR intervened again in a Kylian Mbappé goal

Later, in the 13th minute, VAR intervened again, this time to disallow a goal by Kylian Mbappé. A loss by Fermín López after a bad pass from Frenkie de Jong allowed the '10' of Madrid to shoot first time from outside the area. However, the semi-automatic VAR detected that the Frenchman was slightly ahead at the start of the play.

Thus, the refereeing of the Clásico did a good job, at least from the VAR room, in the opening quarter of an hour of the Clásico. A real miracle, given the history in recent league matches.