Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel blasted match officials for chalking off his side’s late equaliser against Real Madrid in Champions League semi-final second leg at Santiago Bernabeu.
After Joselu’s late brace completed the turnaround for the hosts, Bayern Munich scored a late equaliser but the goal was chalked off for an unclear offside call.
It was a tight offside decision which was later proven to be wrong but the VAR could not intervene on the incident because the linesmen had already raised the offside flag.
Speaking after the game, an incensed Thomas Tuchel let out his fury describing the decision as a disaster and a violation of the rules.
He blamed both the linesman and the referee for the disallowed goal. According to him, the pair made the first and second mistakes, respectively, in the decision to disallow the goal.
“That was an absolute disaster,’ the German said. A violation of the rules.
“This scene must be played out to the end. That’s the rule. The linesman made the mistake, and the referee made the second mistake.
Tuchel also added the linesman had recognized his mistake and apologized but already the damage has been done. Tuchel went ahead to indict the referee for favoring the opponents in the game as he would not have blown the whistle if it was the opponent at the end of the controversy.
“The linesman said sorry. That does not help at that kind of level, to raise the flag in a decision like this, in a close decision at the last minute. The referee as well, he does not have to whistle, he sees that we win the second ball, he sees that we get the shot away. To whistle is a very, very bad decision.
”It is against the rules and it is a bad decision from both of them. It is a disaster, tough to swallow, but it is the way it is.’
“‘Having the balls to raise the flag in a situation like that is a big mistake. And then the referee, when he saw that we won the rebound, made the decision to whistle. It wouldn’t have happened the other way round.
”We accept the apology (from the linesman) but this is not the time to apologise. It’s the semi-finals and it’s not the time to make those sorts of mistakes.”
Bayern Munich will now end the season without a trophy for the first time in 12 years with Thomas Tuchel set to exit the reins as manager at the end of the season.
