The red-and-black defender held Ángel Sepúlveda when he was left alone and received a red card after a VAR review
The red-and-black defender Hugo Nervo held Ángel Sepúlveda when he was left alone in front of Camilo Vargas and received a red card after a VAR review in the first half of the Atlas vs Querétaro.
The central referee Fernando Guerrero had not initially indicated the expulsion, but he was called to the monitor and corrected his decision.
Being expelled, the defender will miss the Clásico Tapatío against Chivas in the eighth round of the Apertura 2022.
"They have to expel Nervo, please, what a terrible application of the rule of play, Guerrero is going to the VAR World Cup, how embarrassing," said Felipe Ramos Rizo, an ESPN refereeing analyst.
"It's a very clear foul that there's no need to go to VAR, Guerrero, in the comfort of having VAR solve everything," added the former international referee.
For Atlas's misfortune, three minutes later, Querétaro opened the scoring with a header from Ángel Sepúlveda, who scored 0-1 before half-time.
Thus, Nervo left Atlas with numerical inferiority and on top of it, his red card will have an impact on his team's next match, where he won't be available for the most important game for the red-and-black team, the Clásico Tapatío against Chivas.
In addition to analyzing the play of the red card, Ramos Rizo stated that two clear penalties were not awarded during the first half, one for each team: "The 'Cantante' was terrible, a penalty in favor of Atlas that he did not penalize, another one in favor of Querétaro, a foul by Vargas that he didn't even notice, overall terrible refereeing."
Fernando Guerrero, who referees the Atlas-Querétaro match of the seventh round, will be a World Cup referee in Qatar 2022. The referee is part of the Mexican quintet that will participate in the World Cup, but his involvement will be in the video assistant referee booth.
In the second half, the actions on the field of play were evened out, as Omar Mendoza was expelled for a second yellow card in the 61st minute, and Atlas achieved a comeback with goals from Luis Reyes (from penalty), Ozziel Herrera, and Julián Quiñones.
In the next round, Atlas will visit Guadalajara at the Estadio Akron, while Querétaro by Mauro Gerk will host Atlético de San Luis at La Corregidora.