Yamal offside call leaves VAR expert questioning delay in Barcelona’s five-goal win

Barcelona moved to the top of La Liga on their own after beating Valencia 5-0 at Mestalla, but the victory was overshadowed by a lengthy VAR review that ruled out a second goal from Lamine Yamal.

Barcelona made an aggressive start in Valencia, with the home side sitting noticeably deep as Hansi Flick’s team took control of the match from the opening minutes.

The visitors opened the scoring after only five minutes. Yamal produced a superb finish from outside the foot after receiving an excellent pass from Fermin Lopez, giving Barcelona an early advantage.

Yamal appeared to have doubled the lead two minutes later when he found the net again. However, the goal was eventually disallowed by the video assistant referee after a review identified an offside offence.

The review took several minutes, prompting surprise because La Liga introduced semi-automated offside technology as one of the competition’s new features this season. The system is intended to assist officials in making offside decisions more efficiently.

Flick expressed his frustration to the fourth official as Barcelona’s impressive opening was interrupted while the teams waited for the decision.

The offside call against Yamal was judged to have been a matter of only a few millimetres. Former referee Iturralde Gonzalez, speaking live on Cadena SER’s Carrusel Deportivo, said he was not convinced by the decision or the time taken to reach it.

“It is very close, and the image we have is not the best. What I do not understand is that we have an automated system with the electronic ball chip, and the time it takes is not normal,” he said.

Iturralde Gonzalez suggested that a technical problem may have forced the officials to complete the process manually.

“The delay must be due to a malfunction in the system and them redrawing the lines manually; otherwise, it makes no sense,” he added.

He also argued that this should have been a straightforward decision for the technology because the players were clearly separated.

“But this offside is easy for the system, because the players are separated,” he said.

Despite the controversy surrounding Yamal’s disallowed goal, Barcelona continued to exploit Valencia’s cautious approach and went on to complete a convincing 5-0 victory at Mestalla. The result left Flick’s side as the sole leaders of the Spanish top flight.

The VAR incident has since become a major talking point, with particular focus on why the semi-automated system took several minutes to confirm an offside decision that was ultimately judged by a margin of millimetres.