FC Barcelona will look to get back to winning ways with a victory against Mallorca at Son Moix. A match that will be refereed by a referee who brings back many bad memories for the Blaugrana team, as under his command the Catalans have lost more games than with any other active referee.
This is Jesús Gil Manzano, the central referee with whom the Blaugranas have a record of 25 wins, 7 draws and 8 losses. This season, the Badajoz native, who will be accompanied by Iglesias Villanueva in the VAR, already refereed Hansi Flick's team in the 2-1 victory against Athletic Club at Montjuïc.
However, history shows that controversy is often present when this referee is in charge of refereeing Barça matches. In these 40 games, Gil Manzano has shown 98 yellow cards and 10 red cards to the Catalans, being the referee who has sent off the most Barça players.
Barça have bad memories of Gil Manzano
The man from Badajoz has been the only referee to have shown a red card to Lionel Messi in the entire Argentinean career. However, the biggest controversy involving Gil Manzano and the club took place last season, when the referee sent off Robert Lewandowski against Osasuna in Pamplona for putting his finger to his nose in protest at a decision by the referee.
The Pole was given a three-match ban for this gesture, a completely disproportionate punishment due to the simplicity of the action. Now, the Blaugranas will once again find themselves facing this referee at their time of greatest need so far this season, with the obligation to add the three points to continue clinging to the top of the championship and put an end to the recent bad run of results.