Officiating the Clásico was no easy task for referee Martínez Munuera. With Real Madrid and Barcelona locked in open war over refereeing, he still passed the test at the Camp Nou.
According to the Spanish newspaper "AS", Munuera delivered a strong display in the eyes of the referees' technical committee, controlling the flow of the match without becoming the story himself.
This was the fifth Clásico he has officiated, and the paper reckons he came through it successfully, proving he has the experience to handle one of the most tense and fiercely contested fixtures in Spanish football.
Any spark in such encounters can turn into a huge fire, the paper noted. This time, at the Camp Nou, it never caught.
Sources consulted by the newspaper agree the referee could perhaps have shown a few more yellow cards, but none of the incidents rose to the level of a serious error from the official from Alicante.
João Cancelo's challenge on Diomande sparked one of the match's biggest controversies. Real Madrid demanded the Barcelona player be sent off, but neither the referee nor the video assistant referee technology judged the challenge dangerous enough for that.
Munuera did get the punishment wrong. Cancelo's blow to the calf muscle of the Real Madrid player warranted a yellow card, yet he never produced one.
The video assistant referee, by contrast, was right not to intervene. The incident did not merit a straight red card, according to the assessment of the referees' technical committee.
Correct, too, were the calls from the video assistant referee and the on-field referee when Alejandro Balde touched the ball with his hand. The ball struck that area of the Barcelona player's body, but the incident did not warrant a foul.
Judging that one correctly from the pitch allowed Martínez Munuera to leave the Camp Nou with a good assessment of his performance.