El Clásico referee Munuera caught telling Militao: “Vinicius grabs him by the neck, it’s a red”

We’re only 24 minutes into the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The score is 0-0, and both sets of players are trying to get a foothold on the encounter. Vinicius and Frenkie de Jong clash in midfield, and this sees the Brazilian pick up a yellow card, much to the annoyance of the home crowd at the under-construction Santiago Bernabéu. But could it have been worse?

Clásico ref suggests Vinicius red card

The decision by referee José Luis Munuera Montero came after the Madrid star, at the end of the scuffle, grabbed De Jong by the neck and threw him to the ground. According to close analysis of the TV footage after the game, the official appears (we’ve not yet hired a professional lip reader, but no one who we’ve got to review it disagrees) to have said to Los Blancos defender Éder Militao that Vinicius’ play should probably have been a red, despite deciding to just hand out a caution.

“Éder, listen to me, it’s red, okay? He grabs him by the neck and throws him to the ground,” the ref appears to be seen explaining, although it doesn’t take a great deal of thought to consider that he may be using those words to justify to the complaints from Militao how clear a booking it was.

Clearly this latest revelation has gone down great with the Barça fans, although the fact that they came away from the capital with a 0-1 victory, they’ll likely still have a smile on their faces today.