Referee Mateu Lahoz, who led Argentina to the World Cup, made another big mistake in the Catalan derby

Weg Weghorst scores the 2-2 for the quarter-finals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup after 98 minutes of play and extends the definition between the Netherlands and Argentina into extra time. At that moment, Lionel Messi kicks in the air, swallows poison and begins to unleash his fury against a single target: the referee of the match, the Spaniard Antonio Mateu Lahoz.

In addition to injury time and the controversial free kick against Argentina’s goal on the last play, the referee was blamed for the game getting out of hand and out of control. But also that he likes to be more the protagonist than the players and coaches: that day, December 9, he distributed 8 yellow cards for the Argentines and 6 for the Dutch (He also kicked Denzel Dumfries.)

Just 22 days later, Mateu Lahoz is once again in the news for his performance on the pitch. This time it was in the Catalan derby between Barcelona and Spain, which was played this Saturday at the Camp Nou, for the 15th date of the Spanish championship.

Thus began the match report on the website of the Catalan sports newspaper Sport: “There was everything in the Barça-Espanyol derby at the Camp Nou, and Much of the blame lies with the match referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz“.

It started with a piece of paper. After the first few minutes, after a clean free kick which deserved a yellow card for defender Brian Oliván and which he decided not to take, he approached the local bench and embraced and kissed Xavithe Barca coach, who reproached him for the decision.

He immediately booked Oliván for grabbing the neck of Gavi, who protested and also got a yellow card.

But Mateu Lahoz’s show of cards started in the game in the 70th minute (25th of the second half). This is how Sport tells it: “The game has gotten out of hand. with 10 minutes of madnessin which he called a penalty, showed 4 yellows and three reds, to then cancel Cabrera’s”.

The chronological order of Mateu’s failure to control begins with the yellows for Jordi Alba and Vini Souza, then for Ferran Torres and subsequently for Pedri; four minutes later, he showed Jordi Alba the second -and the red one- and in the 81st minute, another yellow card and Vini Souza was sent off. And a red aimed at the Uruguayan Leandro Cabrera who finally, after consulting the VAR, decided to go back and take him away, since he believed (after seeing the images) that the South American had not voluntarily trampled the Pole Robert Lewandowski.

After that, he continued to draw cards. He also showed one to Xavi, the Barcelona manager. In the end the match finished 1-1 with goals from Marcos Alonso for the hosts and Joselu, from a penalty, for the visit. In total, Mateu Lahoz showed 15 yellows and two reds.