In the 103rd minute of the Champions League semi-final second leg between Real Madrid and Bayern, with the score 2-1 and qualification for the final almost over at the Santiago Bernabéu, Vinicius lost the ball in his own half, Dier He hit Kimmich and the German hung him almost from the center of the field to the Lunin area. Mendy cleared with a header, but his rebound fell very short. A few tenths of a second before Müller headed the ball and De Ligt passed it to him to score the goal with his first touch, the referee, the Polish Szymon Marciniak, whistled for offside. When the Dutch center back hit the ball with his right foot and scored, several Madrid players had stopped after hearing the referee’s whistle. De Ligt, Müller and several members of the Bayern bench became desperate: they approached Marciniak with their arms raised and asked him for explanations for the action, but it was impossible to review it. The fact that the referee blew his whistle before the play ended made it impossible for video refereeing to help.
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Andriy Lunin, Nacho, Dani Carvajal, Rüdiger, Ferland Mendy, Aurelien Tchouameni (Camavinga, min. 69), Federico Valverde (Joselu, min. 80), Kroos (Modric, min. 69), Jude Bellingham (Eder Militao, min. 99), Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo (Brahim Diaz, min. 80)
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Neuer, Eric Dier, Joshua Kimmich, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Laimer, Gnabry (Alphonso Davies, min. 27), Sane (Kim Min-Jae, min. 76), Jamal Musiala (Müller, min. 84), Aleksandar Pavlovic and Kane (Choupo-Moting, min. 84)
Goals 0-1 min. 67: Alphonso Davies. 1-1 min. 87: Joselu. 2-1 min. 90: Joselu.
Referee Szymon Marciniak
Yellow cards Tuchel (min. 97) and Camavinga (min. 100)
Marciniak’s mistake was precisely in rushing. The Pole influenced the action in such a way that he left the VAR with no room for action. By signaling offside – it is not clear that it is either, and we should have seen what the technology ruled -, the referee distorted the action: Lunin, Militao, Rüdiger and Mendy – the French full-back even raised his right arm as soon as he heard the whistle and started walking—they disconnected from the play for a moment. When De Ligt hit the goal they were activated again, but the error of the referee team in signaling an alleged infraction (offside) before letting the play finish prevented us from reviewing whether it had been committed or not.
The referees recognized the error as soon as the game ended. With the Real Madrid players celebrating the umpteenth comeback in the Champions League – at the buzzer, Joselu scored two goals in three minutes (in the 88th and 91st) – in an ecstatic Bernabéu, the lineman who raised the flag in the 103rd minute He approached the German team’s bench and apologized for not letting the play finish. “The lineman told me: ‘I’m sorry, I made a mistake,’” De Ligt said in the mixed zone. “We have rules in football, and the rule says that if it is not a clear offside – and it was not, and I have to say that I have not yet seen if it was or was not offside –, you have to let the game play. And if at the last minute you whistle like this, I think it’s a big, big mistake,” he reasoned.
De Ligt also said that the play was a shame and that 12 minutes earlier the same had not happened with Joselu’s second goal. After a corner, the Galician forward scored from a pass from Rüdiger, but the other lineman indicated offside when the action had already ended. The VAR verified that both the German center back and Joselu were authorized, corrected the error and the goal with which Madrid completed the comeback went up on the scoreboard. “With Joselu’s goal he did let him play and with us he didn’t. It’s incredible… It’s easy to talk about the referee, but in the end they deserved it,” the center-back conceded.
Bayern coach Thomas Tüchel was clearly upset with the play in statements to Movistar+ in the mixed zone. Asked how he could explain why Madrid had achieved another comeback at the Bernabéu in the final minutes, The technician responded with a laconic response, almost without wanting to talk: “That the referees have their effect.” Later, at a press conference, he dedicated more words to the controversial action: “Having the balls and guts to raise the flag in this situation is a major mistake. We won the rebound and shot in five seconds, but the referee decides to whistle; It goes against any rule. I’m sorry. This would not have happened the other way around,” he complained. “We accept the referee’s apology, but in a semi-final it is not the time to apologize. This is not the time to commit such serious infractions. The referees have to be at the highest level and there is no point in apologizing. If he is not able to offer the best version of himself, his apologies are of no use to us,” Tuchel continued.
Carlo Ancelotti did not avoid controversy either. The Italian coach, who was seen excited on the Bernabéu pitch on Wednesday night after managing to reach Madrid for the third time in a Champions League final, recalled that Marciniak He also disallowed a goal for his team in the 71st minute due to contact between Nacho and Kimmich in which both struggled. At the end of the action, the center back puts his two hands on the German player’s face, pushes him and he falls to the ground. “Pita [fuera de juego] and we stop. This referee has whistled the World Cup final, he is a high-level referee. “We complained about Nacho’s disallowed goal because Kimmich jumped, the two were holding each other,” Ancelotti said.
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