Real Sociedad ended Barcelona’s seven-game winning streak after scoring the latter 1:0 in Sunday’s LaLiga match.
After the game, Barcelona’s coach, Hansi Flick disapproved the decision to rule Robert Lewandowski’s goal as an offside.
“It was the wrong decision, clear. I saw the picture. It’s clear, it’s clear, but we have to accept it. It was not the referee’s fault. At the end of the day, we are humans, we make mistakes, and today was a big mistake,” he said at the end of the game.
Lewandowski thought he had opened the scoring in the 14th minute, but semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), introduced in Spain at the start of the season, ruled the striker’s toe was marginally ahead of La Real defender Nayef Aguerd’s foot.
SAOT is not used universally across Europe. Italy’s Serie A was the first major league to implement it and there is a desire to introduce it in the Premier League, but its roll out in England has been delayed as testing continues.