Huge controversy in Barcelona after VAR rules out Lewandowski's goal, but there is an explanation

FC Barcelona suffered its second defeat in LaLiga and third this season with a match that culés will try to forget: Robert Lewandowski was refused of a goal due to a very controversial offside, but the team didn't react the lone goal by Real Sociedad: it didn't shoot on target at all.

As it was the case in the previous defeat against Osasuna, Barcelona played with several players side-lined (Raphinha, Marc Casadó or Lamine Yamal, the latter missed the game due to an ankle contusion that may leave him out of the Spanish squad for Nations League this week).

Lewandowski scored a goal very early in the game, but was ruled out for offside, something many people disagree. Seen live, the goals seemed completely fine. However, semi-automatic VAR resolved it was offside.

What really happened with VAR, and why it wasn't a mistake

With the images seen on TV, it seems to have been a mistake, and FC Barcelona has been "robbed", which is what many people claimed when it happened live, including memes of the Polish player having Krusty the clown sized feet.

However, there is an explanation: there is a difference between the images seen on TV and the images the semi-automatic VAR uses.

This case, it wasn't a matter of the referee's judgment. He was told from the VAR room that the semi-automatic system had seen it was offside, with no margin of error. This system detects the exact millisecond the ball is hit by the previous pass (by Frenkie de Jong) and int that exact moment, Lewandowski's foot was slightly ahead of the Real Sociedad defender.

The viral images of Lewandowski's boot is not the one VAR used to rule out the goal, so no, it wasn't a mistake, at least if we trust the technology, as there is no human way to know for certain...