Another robbery: a goal from Real Madrid came from a scandalous offside

As expected, controversy was the order of the day in the match between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad in the second leg of the Copa del Rey 2024-2025 semifinals. The merengues were on the brink of a historic failure after the 'txuri-urdin' team turned the aggregate score around with 10 minutes left in the match, but the head of Aurélien Tchouaméni came to the rescue.

In the 86th minute, the French midfielder connected with a corner sent by Rodrygo to the heart of the area, and his header found its way into the net of Álex Remiro, temporarily giving the Madrid team qualification. However, the corner should never have been taken because it originated from a play with an obvious and blatant positional offside by Kylian Mbappé.

Luka Modric sent a through ball to take advantage of a breakaway run by Vinicius. In that action, the Parisian forward, who is several meters offside, pretends to go for the ball, but then stands still without touching it as it passes by him.

Another robbery at the Bernabéu and counting...

Even though he does not make contact with the ball, the interference from the player is extremely clear, as it conditions the defender marking him. However, as has been customary throughout history at the Santiago Bernabéu, both the linesman and the referee, Alberola Rojas, turned a blind eye and allowed the play to continue, which ended in a corner in favor of Madrid and the subsequent goal by Tchouaméni.

The players of Real Sociedad, especially Kubo and Oyarzabal, rushed to protest to the fourth official, showing great anger at what had happened in that play, but ended up being dismissed by the referee, who remained firm in his unusual and incomprehensible stance.

A key and controversial play that could have defined the tie before extra time, although Mikel Oyarzabal would equalize everything in stoppage time. However, another header, this time from Antonio Rüdiger, ultimately gave an undeserved qualification to a Madrid team that even routine refereeing assistance cannot save from being an absolute disaster on the field.