VAR upgrades Huijsen's yellow to red for DOGSO in Madrid derby, leaving Real ten men

Dean Huijsen was sent off after a VAR review upgraded his yellow card to a red for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO) in the Madrid derby on 21 September 2026, leaving Real Madrid to play out the second half with ten men. Newly released audio, published by Mundo Deportivo, documents how referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias reached that decision after initially showing only a yellow card for the challenge on Giuliano Simeone.

The second VAR intervention of the match arrived shortly after the interval. Ortiz Arias pointed to the spot and showed Huijsen a yellow card, but VOR official Daniel Trujillo advised a pitch-side review on the grounds that the challenge constituted a DOGSO offence — specifically that Huijsen had held Simeone without giving him any opportunity to contest the ball.

At the monitor, the discussion centred on whether Real Madrid’s goalkeeper could realistically have reached the ball. After being shown the offside-camera angle, Ortiz Arias concluded that the goalkeeper was not close enough to intervene and that there had been no genuine contest for possession. He upgraded the sanction to a red card while keeping the penalty award intact.

Mundo Deportivo’s assessment was that Huijsen should have been dismissed on the initial call and that the error was corrected only through the VOR prompt. The outlet also noted that a separate incident involving Kang-in Lee warranted different punishment, though no further detail on that action was provided in the report.

The Huijsen decision sits alongside other derby incidents that continued to draw scrutiny after the final whistle. According to Mundo Deportivo, the CTA’s Technical Committee was scheduled to analyse the match’s contested moments the following Monday, with plays selected by La Liga’s AI system to be included in Tuesday’s public Time of Review. That timeline reflects the schedule as stated in the original report dated 21 September 2026.