Mbappé went down inside the box, José Luis Munuera Montero pointed to the spot, and VAR did not call the referee to the monitor. By full-time, every voice from Racing Santander’s dressing room was saying the same thing: there had been contact, but not a foul.

Mbappé converted the opener in the 11th minute. Jude Bellingham made it two in the 21st and Yan Diomande added the third in the 36th, and the newly promoted side were out of the game well before the hour. The clip replaying on Monday was still the first.

Martín admits the arm

Iván Martín, the midfielder beaten by Mbappé’s run, did not deny there had been something.

“I put my arm on him a little, but incidents like these should not be given as penalties,” Martín said after the match, as reported by Goal.

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He also recounted the explanation he was given on the pitch: the referee had told him he saw contact, and that VAR had confirmed it to him.

Speaking to broadcasters at half-time, Martín went harder on the technology side.

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

Captain draws a wider line

Racing captain Iñigo Sainz-Maza was blunter still, speaking in post-match comments carried by Goal.

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“For us, it cannot be considered a penalty under any circumstances. And I think everyone who has played football knows it is not a penalty.”

Sainz-Maza also pointed to a penalty Racing had been given earlier in the season and then had taken away, questioning why that same mechanism had not been applied here.

Analyst backs the players

Pedro Martín, the refereeing analyst on Cadena COPE, did not spare Munuera Montero either, in comments carried by Goal.

“The referee saw slight contact and blew the whistle. That’s it, he got it wrong.”

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The pundit was equally pointed about the forward’s role in it, saying that a player who jumps the way Mbappé did is looking for trouble.

Protocol kept the decision on the pitch. Because Munuera Montero had seen the incident himself and judged it a foul, VAR confirmed the contact rather than call him to the monitor, which left Racing with no mechanism to overturn an on-field call once given.

Real Madrid left Santander with a sixth consecutive win across all competitions, and a fourth in a row in La Liga.

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