Opinion
Defeat in the Champions League: Bayern are looking for the wrong scapegoat with the referee
Referee Szymon Marciniak (center) is harassed by Bayern players Matthijs de Ligt (l.) and Thomas Müller after he refused to recognize de Ligt’s goal to make it 2-2
© Peter Kneffel / DPA
After the bitter 1-2 defeat at Real Madrid in the semi-final second leg of the Champions League, the anger of those responsible at FC Bayern is directed at the referee. Wrongly.
No, he didn’t want to talk about the referee, said a visibly annoyed Thomas Müller after the 2-1 defeat at Real Madrid. A laudable resolution – after all, the 105 crazy minutes at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu provided enough to talk about.
But in the end, after the bitter exit in the Champions League semi-final, almost all statements revolved around a decision made by the referee in the 103rd minute. When Joshua Kimmich sent a wide cross into the Madrid penalty area, the linesman recognized an alleged offside position for Mazraoui and de Ligt and raised the flag, whereupon the Polish referee Szymon Marciniak immediately whistled off the attack. So the goal couldn’t count when the ball was in the net immediately after a shot from de Ligt.
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“Willfully,” fumed Thomas Tuchel and spoke of “a blatant violation of the rules.” Sports director Max Eberl even accused the referee team of being against a German final.
The anger about the early whistle is justified. In fact, the referee should have allowed the scene to finish. The VAR could then have checked a possible offside position. Just like what happened with the 2-1 winning goal for Real Madrid. Only after the ball was in the goal did the linesman raise the flag, referee Marciniak refused to recognize the hit – and was corrected by the video referee.
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But the fact that Bayern are now acting as if they had been denied a clear goal is distorting the facts: it is clear from the television images that the central defenders no longer consistently go for the ball after the whistle. Antonio Rüdiger clearly pulls back, goalkeeper Andriy Lunin doesn’t move at all as the ball flies towards his goal.
In the end it can be said: The referee deprived FC Bayern of a scoring opportunity, nothing more happened. To blame this scene for the elimination after almost 200 minutes played in the first and second leg is a bit cheap.
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