Champions League
Tuchel’s anger at the referee: “Not the moment for apologies”
Was visibly dissatisfied with the refereeing performance: Thomas Tuchel. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
An offside whistle before the supposed 2-2 in stoppage time against Real Madrid angered Bayern. Tuchel, Neuer and Eberl are outraged and criticize the referee team harshly.
“Of course we accept the apology as sportsmen. But it’s a semi-final, it’s not the moment for apologies, honestly,” said Tuchel and literally worked himself into a rage in the press conference. “It’s not the time for such blatant video violations. Everyone has to reach the limit, everyone has to suffer, everyone has to play without mistakes. The referees at this level have to do the same. It doesn’t help if you say sorry afterwards. That’s why you’re on the field, that’s why you’re the best there is out there. And if you can’t deliver that, it doesn’t help,” complained Tuchel.
One of the world’s best referees
Marciniak is considered one of the world’s best referees. He officiated the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France and the 2023 Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan. He was also a good game leader for a long time on Wednesday.
Tuchel criticized the referee and linesman. “It’s against all the rules of modern football. Raising the flag in a situation like this, where you can never, never, never be sure that it’s offside, is a tough decision,” said the Bayern coach. A 2-2 equalizer would have meant extra time after the 2-2 draw in the first leg.
“We’re just mad”
“We’re just angry, we left everything out there. It was a real fight, we put the punch and we’re almost over the finish line,” said Tuchel, given a 1-0 lead by Alphonso Davies and two late goals conceded by Real- Striker Joselu.
“You can apologize. It’s also good and smart that he’s doing it,” said Bayern captain Manuel Neuer and speculated: “He probably got infected in the situation that he was a referee at the Bernabéu. That’s allowed “It doesn’t happen at this level. You have to make decisions the way you’ve learned to, if you don’t immediately recognize whether it was offside, it wasn’t the right thing to do.”
Bayern’s sports director Max Eberl was also stunned. “It’s zero point zero to explain.” Such scenes would otherwise never be interrupted so that they could be checked later using VAR. “Logically, that was a mistake,” criticized Eberl.