Thomas Tuchel was left very frustrated as Bayern were dumped out of the Champions League (Picture: Getty Images)
Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel says the linesman apologised to him after making a ‘disastrous decision’ late in Bayern Munich’s 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night.
The dramatic game in Madrid came after a 2-2 draw in Munich and the deadlock was broken on 68 minutes thanks to a stunning Alphonso Davies goal for Bayern.
The home team equalised through substitute Joselu on 88 minutes after a Manuel Neuer blunder and Joselu scored again just three minutes later to turn things around completely.
Bayern then had the ball in the net through Konrad Laimer, but the linesman had already flagged for an offside against Noussair Mazraoui.
Replays showed that Mazraoui may have in fact been onside and it was certainly far too tight a call for the linesman to flag and not wait for VAR.
Whether or not the full-back actually was offside was not clarified, while Real Madrid defenders and goalkeeper did pause after seeing the flag, so there is no guarantee that Laimer would have scored anyway, but Tuchel was fuming and the linesman admitted he was wrong.
‘Almost through, almost there, then a very unusual mistake of our very best player for the equaliser,’ Tuchel told TNT Sports. ‘Then we conceded in a very narrow decision, the second one in stoppage time. Then we scored one.
‘They have a disastrous decision from the linesman and from the referee. It feels almost like a betrayal in the end because of that decision. It was a huge fight, we left everything on the pitch, we were almost there. Now we have to say congratulations to Real Madrid.
‘The linesman said sorry, but that does not help on that kind of level. To raise the flag in a decision like this, a close decision in the last minute. And the referee as well, the referee does not have to whistle. He sees that we win the second ball, he sees that we get a shot away. To whistle is a very, very bad decision.
‘It’s against the rules and it’s a bad decision from both of them. It’s a disaster. Tough to swallow but that’s the way it is.’
Bayern defender Matthijs de Ligt echoed his manager’s thoughts, slamming the ‘big mistake’ from the officials.
”If it’s offside, it’s offside. But we made rules in football, if it’s not a clear offside, which it wasn’t because I haven’t seen yet if it was offside or not, you have to keep playing,’ said the Dutchman.
Matthijs de Ligt (left) fumed with referee Szymon Marciniak at the climax of the contest (Picture: Getty Images)
‘If you go in the last minute, whistle like this, I think this is a big, big mistake. This is a shame. The linesman said to me, “I’m sorry, I made a mistake.”
‘In the end I’m not the type of person who wants to blame a win or a lose on the referee. Madrid deserves to win because they win 2-1. But if it is a rule it is a rule.’
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