All associated with Barcelona will no doubt be keeping a close eye on the activity of referee Jesús Gil Manzano on Saturday evening.
This comes after a head-turning statistic, surrounding Barca’s record in fixtures overseen by the Spaniard, surfaced online.
Gil Manzano has for his part been assigned to the Blaugrana’s 2nd La Liga outing of the campaign, against Athletic Club on Saturday evening.
The official has overseen 39 fixtures involving the Catalans in the past, across which they have slipped to a considerable eight defeats.
This marks Barcelona’s most losses under any referee in the club’s storied history.
This is not all, however.
Gil Manzano is also the active official to have shown the most red cards to the Blaugrana.
Down through the years, he has sent no fewer than four Barca stars for early baths. And what a star-studded quartet it is, in the form of Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suárez and, most recently, Robert Lewandowski.
Credit to Diario Sport for the statistics.
Conor Laird | GSFN
