CTA says Kang-in Lee should have been sent off in the Madrid derby

Tiempo de Revisión has highlighted the decisions made by Ortiz Arias and Trujillo Suárez in the Madrid derby. The CTA acknowledges an error by both the on-field referee and the video officials over Kang-in Lee’s challenge on Fede Valverde: the Korean player should have been sent off directly.

According to the CTA, the correct decision was a “direct free kick and straight red card”. The body calls the refereeing decision a “clear and obvious error” and says the VAR should have intervened. It therefore corrects the Madrid referee over his error in the Metropolitano derby, providing a response to the performance of the refereeing duo.

The CTA, however, approves the handling of the incident involving Cuti Romero and Jude Bellingham, while explaining why Ortiz Arias went to the monitor. Initially, the referee had cautioned the Real Madrid midfielder. After reviewing the incident, the VAR considered that there had been a case of mistaken identity: the Madrid player was the one who had been kicked.

The television graphic reading “red card under review” therefore did not refer to a possible sending-off: Ortiz Arias was actually overturning the yellow card shown to Bellingham. After watching the footage, he also cautioned Cuti Romero. Real Madrid had called for a red card for Atlético de Madrid’s Argentine defender, but the CTA describes the incident as one of “intensity with a high degree of interpretation” and says Ortiz Arias assessed the stamp as “reckless”.

The third error attributed by the CTA to Ortiz Arias concerns Huijsen’s penalty incident involving Giuliano. The body nevertheless praises the VAR intervention that called the referee to review his decision. He had initially awarded a penalty and shown a yellow card to the Real Madrid centre-back before the VOR room asked him to assess whether Huijsen’s offence, in a clear goalscoring opportunity situation, warranted a red card. After reviewing the footage on the monitor, Ortiz Arias sent off the Madrid player.