Marc Cucurella’s arm came up slowly. Fingers out, thumb up, held for several seconds while he stared across at the assistant referee and mouthed the same word again and again. “Brilliant.”

The clip, picked up by DAZN cameras at El Sardinero on Sunday, has pushed the match itself into the background. By Monday it had circulated widely on social media, with Cucurella drawing criticism for the way he had treated a match official, according to Goal.

Two decisions in opposite directions

The protest came in a match that turned on refereeing. In the 11th minute, referee José Luis Munuera Montero awarded a penalty when Kylian Mbappé went down inside the area under minimal contact. Mbappé converted, Jude Bellingham made it two in the 21st minute, and Yan Diomande added a third in the 36th.

Later in the match, Munuera Montero pointed to the spot at the other end for a handball by Aurélien Tchouaméni. After a VAR review, he overturned his own decision. No penalty.

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José Alberto queries the review Madrid never got

Racing head coach José Alberto did not quarrel with the VAR decision on Tchouaméni. He quarrelled with the fact that Madrid’s opening goal came from a similar sort of challenge that had never been looked at again.

The penalty award for Madrid, he told reporters, annoyed him.

“Evidently we came across a great Madrid, who put us under a lot of pressure in the first half hour, and were much better than us, but what conditions everything was the first goal and the penalty.”

In his post-match press conference, Alberto returned to the point: the overturn against his side was fine on the footage, but the opening penalty should have been reviewed on the same standard, he argued in comments reported by Goal.

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‘The contact isn’t enough’

Iván Martín, the Racing midfielder involved in the Mbappé incident, said he had made some contact but did not believe it warranted a penalty. Speaking to DAZN at half-time, he said:

“I put my arm on him a little, but incidents like these should not be given as penalties.”

He added, in comments relayed by Spanish-football outlet Get Football News Spain:

“Penalties like Mbappé’s should never be called. The VAR should have intervened. The contact isn’t enough.”

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Martín added that Munuera Montero had told the Racing players he had seen a penalty and that VAR had confirmed the contact to him.

No LaLiga step announced yet

The DAZN footage of Cucurella mouthing “brilliant” is still the clip being shared. No formal LaLiga disciplinary step against him had been announced by Monday afternoon, with the criticism so far limited to social media reaction. Real Madrid’s next LaLiga fixture follows a midweek Champions League trip.

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