A critical decision by referee Szymon Marciniak and his crew may have sent Bayern Munich out of the Champions League on Wednesday (May 8th, 2024). It’s about an early offside whistle. Bayern lost 2-1 to Real Madrid thanks to two late goals from Joselu. The first leg ended 2-2.
In the turbulent injury time, not only did the German national player Antonio Rüdiger prepare Joselu’s winning goal (90th + 2 minutes), but de Ligt also put the ball in the Madrilenians’ goal. At this point, 103 minutes had already been played, nine minutes of injury time had originally been indicated, meaning the game was about to go to the final whistle. If the goal had been recognized, there would most likely have been extra time in the second leg of the semi-final.
To the live ticker: Real Madrid – FC Bayern arrow right semi-final arrow right
The referee team whistles off the action in an unusual manner
But the referees made a fatal mistake. As is common practice at European level, referees allow game actions that have an unclear situation to continue until the end. Only then will offside positions, for example, be indicated and then the whistle may be blown. If there is still a need for clarification, the video referee could get in touch and a review of the possible goal creation could take place via video analysis. But the whistle meant that a VAR check was no longer possible.
Tuchel is upset: “This is a violation of the rules”
“I don’t understand why he doesn’t let the game continue,” said Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel after the game, “when Madrid’s second goal the game continues. Those are two mistakes that the referees make. The first is made by the assistant , who raises the flag for offside. The referee then blows his whistle. It’s a disaster. The committed coach, who will leave Munich after the last two Bundesliga games, had already seen a yellow card for complaining. When the situation happened, the coach completely freaked out and denounced the referee’s performance loudly and with lots of gestures. But there was no further personal punishment.
Eberl: Referee apologized
Matthijs de Ligt, who was perhaps on the same level as Rüdiger at the moment of the pass, also reacted in disbelief: “I don’t understand why he doesn’t let it play out. You don’t do it like that. He’s not allowed to blow the whistle off the situation.” And he revealed an aspect that had remained hidden from the audience: “He apologized. But I don’t understand it.” Marciniak seemed to have admitted his wrong decision. Munich’s sports director Max Eberl confirmed the apology: “He said it was his mistake. But we can’t give a damn about it.”
Munich was not rewarded for its commitment and returned home disappointed with a very stale taste.
