Thomas Tuchel had tears in his eyes as he tore into officials in a new blast after Bayern Munich were controversially denied a potential late equaliser against Real Madrid.
The Bundesliga giants crashed out of the Champions League on Wednesday night, as Los Blancos booked their place in next month’s final at Wembley with a 4-3 aggregate victory, after two late goals from former Stoke forward Joselu.
However, that wasn’t the last of the drama, as Matthijs de Ligt netted in the 13th minute of injury time which would have sent the game to extra time, only for Polish referee Szymon Marciniak to have blown his whistle for offside moments before the ball hit the back of the net.
Replays showed that the call was extremely tight, with Bayern’s Noussair Mazraoui appearing at first glance to be onside despite the call. Due to the whistle already being blown, VAR could not intervene.
During an interview with DAZN, as per BILD, Tuchel was visibly seen fighting back the tears as he hit out at a ‘complete violation of the rules’.
He said: ‘This is a disaster, Toni’s (Antonio Rudiger) leg is probably deeper than Mazraoui. It’s an absolute disaster.’
He added: ‘Imagine if Real Madrid let them keep running when they score their second goal. It would have been the same, the ball goes to Toni and the whistle is blown. The situation must be played out to the end. That’s the rule. Especially when she’s so close to the gate. Especially when it’s so tight.
‘The assistant makes the first mistake, the referee makes the second mistake. He doesn’t have to whistle, he can just wait and see.
‘That’s what happened with the second goal. This is a violation of the rules.’
Officials are generally advised to delay their offside calls in case they are wrong.
Tuchel has been vocal about his anger surrounding the offside decision, telling TNT Sports that it ‘felt like a betrayal’.
In his interview with DAZN, he added: ‘There are no accusations. Everyone is so angry about the second decision because it probably would have counted as a goal.’
Tuchel, speaking to TNT Sports, revealed the assistant referee had apologised to him for flagging early in a move that could have cost his team the game.
He said: ‘We were almost there and a very unusual mistake of the best player (Manuel Neuer) for the equaliser, then we conceded in a very narrow decision in stoppage time.
‘Then we scored one and it was a disastrous decision from the linesman and the referee, so it feels almost like a betrayal in the end because of that decision.
‘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 in 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.’
Matthijs de Ligt had led the Bayern protests on the pitch, and echoed his manager’s comments post-match in that he too had received an apology from the officials.
Bayern will now go trophyless for the season for the first time in over a decade.
‘We all know the rules if the offside is not clear then we have to play on,’ said the Dutch defender. ‘It’s a disgrace that it happened against us and not for us at the other end when Joselu was almost offside and the game was allowed to continue.
‘A decision like that in the last minute is a mistake It’s always easy to talk about the referee after the game but this time it’s merited.’
It has already been confirmed that Tuchel will leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season.
Real Madrid meanwhile will go on to face Bayern’s Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund in next month’s final at Wembley.
