Barcelona currently is having a very good domestic season. They beat Real Madrid last month in the Supercopa de Espana final by a very comfortable 3-1 scoreline. Last night they played Real Betis in a La Liga match and a very strange thing happened on the pitch that spooked a lot of fans after realization.
In terms of domestic competitions, Xavi’s Barcelona is having an exceptionally good season. They are sitting comfortably at the top of the La Liga league table with 50 points. Their arch-rivals Real Madrid are 8 points behind with one less game played than the Catalans. The Blagnuara also has a bragging right after dislodging Real in the Supercopa final rather easily.
Barcelona reach 50 points at the midway point of the La Liga season for the first time since 2017-18 🫡 pic.twitter.com/VXw85cgUYd
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 1, 2023
In terms of European silverware though, Barcelona is not in the position where we are used to seeing them. They had a difficult Champions League group consisting of the likes of Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. Barca couldn’t manage a single win against either of the teams and go out in the group stages. They will play Manchester United in the round of 32 tie of the Europa League.
Last night though Barcelona had the chance to stretch the gap even further in the title race against sixth-placed Real Betis. They started the match with authority and kept a lot of the ball between themselves. The first half was a stalemate. It took Barcelona 65 minutes to draw the first blood through Raphinha. Inside 15 minutes a returning Robert Lewandowski scored another goal to make it 2-0 for Barcelona.
Fans react to spooky mid-game disappearance of Ronald Araujo
A full-stacked Barcelona team looked set to secure all three points from the match. A solid Barcelona defensive line stopped a potent Betis forward line with ease. Ronald Araujo did exceptionally well to stop the likes of Borja Iglesias and Nabil Fekir.
Araujo’s most notable moment came in the 80th minute of the match. Betis forward Willian Jose was chasing a ball played by Sergio Canales and Ronald Araujo was shielding the ball in order to send it out for a goal kick. The Uruguayan successfully did his job, but he was given a small nudge at his back and he fell down near the billboards.
WHERE DID THE BARCELONA PLAYER GO⁉️ 🤣
Modern technology gets the best of Ronald Araújo! 🪄
Free to watch highlights 📺 https://t.co/EzEEtpmq6G#OptusSport #LaLiga pic.twitter.com/87wHZjGwHs
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) February 2, 2023
To everyone’s surprise, Araujo vanished from there as the billboard had a change of advertisement. When later on it was caught and posted in a Barcelona subreddit, the fans went crazy with their theories. One fan said, “Witchcraft! Smh what will Barca get away with next,” sarcastically in response. Another fan compared it with a FIFA glitch and said, “FIFA games were realistic after all,” in a funny tone.
Some fans went far and brought out the recent news of Paul Pogba’s witch doctor stuff. A comment said, “Nice work there by Pogba’s witch doctor.” One fan posted a theory about the ad panels being responsible. It said, “IIRC the ad panels are a sort of green screen and different ads are shown based on country/region,” explaining how it has nothing to do with anything supernatural.
At the end of the day, it looks like that Ronaldo Araujo rolled down from the higher part of the ground to the lower part. And the camera machinery might just have missed the quick transition as the billboard ad also changed.