Referee Tobias Stieler twice showed Amine Adli a yellow card because of Schwalbe, both times the VAR intervened – to the relief of the field referee.
Tobias Stieler thanked the VAR.
IMAGO/Revierfoto
There was a duality of events between Leverkusen and FC Bayern in the second half. Twice Amine Adli penetrated the Munich penalty area, fell there – and saw the yellow card twice. The fact that the Leverkusen offensive player was not sent off with yellow and red was due to the VAR team around Sören Storks. This reported to field referee Tobias Stieler, who was given the opportunity to correct his original decision. In the end there were penalties for the Werkself, which Exequiel Palacios converted both to make it 2-1.
“Both decisions were between two extremes,” said Stieler after the game at DAZN. “For me, playing on was never an option,” the referee explained his decision to warn Adli about the alleged swallows. “In the first situation, I don’t see the contact. I only see the falling, which was totally atypical, so I decided to swallow.” In the review area, Stieler then also recognized that Benjamin Pavard had stepped on Adli’s heel – and had thus triggered the “atypical” fall.
In the second penalty scene in the 70th minute, Stieler only saw “in the behind-goal camera” that Dayot Upamecano had slipped “uncontrolled into the player” and there was “clear contact” – and was allowed to correct himself this time as well. “Twice wrong on the field, twice many thanks to Kölner Keller for the great support,” said Stieler with relief.
Leverkusen’s fans presented a banner against VAR – this time he helped Bayer. 
IMAGO/Revierfoto
“Prime example for the interaction with the video assistant”
Overall, these two scenes are “prime examples of interaction with the video assistant,” Stieler even went one step further: “He (the VAR, Anm. d. Red.) was sort of my life saver – and also for the game the life saver. In the end, both teams were happy because the right decision was made.”
Now he has promised me the jersey, let’s see if it goes down well
Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann, who had raged against the referees a month ago after the 2-3 defeat against Gladbach – Stieler was in action as VAR at the time – this time “saw relatively quickly that both were penalties”. And players from both teams would have congratulated Stieler on the good performance.
The referee had a lot of fun with Adli, who was wrongly warned twice: “The only thing left to do is take it with humour. We hugged each other during the game and also after the game. Now he promised me the jersey, we’ll see if it matters.”
