Barcelona president Joan Laporta has called on the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to replay Sunday’s El Clasico encounter with Real Madrid if there is conclusive evidence that Lamine Yamal’s ‘phantom’ goal ought to have stood.

After Yamal’s strike was disallowed by VAR in Barcelona’s 3-2 defeat at Real Madrid, head coach Xavi Hernandez criticised the officiating in LaLiga, which does not use goal-line technology.

Yamal’s effort in the 28th minute was reviewed by VAR for several minutes, as it appeared to cross the line before Real keeper Andrey Lunin cleared it. The goal was disallowed and VAR awarded a corner to Barca.

Laporta’s statement on Monday opened: “As president of FC Barcelona, I would like to put across my dissatisfaction the day after the improper use of a tool such as VAR in one of the most important matches in the global schedule is marking our calendar.

“I am referring to the ‘phantom goal’ by Lamine. As a club we want to be sure about what happened, and it is for that reason that from FCB we will make an immediate request to the Technical Refereeing Committee at the Spanish Football Federation for a comprehensive collection of footage and audio from the incident.

“If once this documentation has been analysed, the club understands that an error was made in the revision of the incident, we will take all available measure to reverse the situation, without discounting, obviously, any necessary legal action.

“If it is confirmed that it was a legal goal, we will move ahead and we do not discount requesting that the game be replayed, just as has happened in another game in Europe due to a VAR error. Finally, I would like to underline that despite our focus on this incident, we also disagree with various others that occurred during the game, and that could have been reviewed using VAR.”

Vinicius Jr and Lucas Vazquez’s goals helped Real equalise twice after Andreas Christensen and Fermin Lopez had put Barca ahead.

Jude Bellingham scored the decider in the 91st minute, securing Real’s fourth consecutive win over the Catalan side. Second-placed Barca trail by 11 points, a deficit that will be difficult to overturn with six games remaining.

Source: Sky Sports