The VAR audio of River's disallowed goal against Boca was published: was it correctly sanctioned?

Soccer fans had a new chance to enjoy a Superclásico: River and Boca met again, in this case for the quarterfinals of the 2024 Professional League Cup, and “Xeneize” eliminated their classic rival by beating them 3 to 2, with a double from Miguel Merentiel.

Miguel Borja had opened the scoring, Merentiel tied the game when the first stage ended, while in the second half Cavani made it 2 to 1 and Merentiel himself achieved his double to make it 3 to 1. On the hour, Paulo Díaz scored for the by Martín Demichelis, but it was not enough since the meeting was about to end.

The great controversy of the afternoon It happened six minutes into the second half, when Cristian Lema unintentionally pushed the ball towards his goal, goalkeeper “Chiquito” Romero made a great effort to get it out. but in the first instance the referee Yael Falcón Pérez sanctioned River's goal, at the request of the linesman Juan Pablo Belatti.

However the VAR was in charge of reviewing it and after a few minutes annulled the goalso the match remained tied 1 to 1, and then Boca was able to define it to finish 3 to 2.

Today the VAR audio was released, where they defined the play: “It's a goal, it's a goal, it brings it out from within”, the assistant is heard saying in the dialogue. “He scored a goal, he brings it out from within,” responds the AVAR in charge of Gastón Suárez. Then, the person in charge of the Superclásico video refereeing system, Jorge Baliño, began to request a series of pictures to see the action step by step.

“For me it didn't fit”Baliño stated. “Calm down Yael, we are looking at her. She is tough”, Suárez is heard saying during the review. “The opposite of six. That one, look. That is the point of contact,” added the VAR manager using one of the cameras inside the goal in which you can see the moment where Romero takes the ball and takes it out.

“Yael, no goal for us. The ball does not enter completely”, Baliño tells the referee, who then determines a bounce to the ground to restart the match. In short, no compelling image and a lot of interpretation, in a play that is factual. The AFA will have to improve a lot.