A newly-revealed angle of the controversial offside incident which denied Bayern Munich a late equaliser against Real Madrid, a call which Thomas Tuchel branded ‘an absolute disaster’.
A rocking Bernabeu saw the hosts mount a late turnaround to win 2-1 on the night courtesy of Joselu’s brace, and 4-3 on aggregate, after capitalising on a simple error by Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer.
The German visitors found an equaliser in stoppage time through Matthijs de Ligt, but it was scratched off because Noussair Mazraoui was deemed to be offside, and with the assistant referee’s flag, play stopped, meaning that VAR couldn’t intervene, and the goal wasn’t allowed to stand.
According to an angle shared by beIN Sports after the match, and shared on X (formerly Twitter), Mazraoui was in fact onside in the build-up to de Ligt’s goal, so the effort would have counted, if play had been allowed to continue.
Bayern boss Tuchel was left in tears following the game, with the controversial call at the centre of his anger after their Champions League exit.
During an interview with DAZN, as per BILD, Tuchel 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, although it is not clear why this did not happen in Madrid.
Tuchel told TNT Sports the assistant referee had apologised to him for flagging early in a move that could have cost his team the game.
De Ligt told beIN SPORTS that the linesman apologised to him for the decision as well.
He added: ‘The linesman said to me I’m sorry, I made a mistake, I can’t buy anything for that. I’m not the type of person who wants to blame a loss or win on the referee but it means you have to win because you win 2-1. I think if it’s a rule, it’s a rule.’
Real Madrid will face Bayern’s Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund in next month’s Champions League final at Wembley.
