Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos has criticized referees for a vital decision that went in his side’s favor during last week’s Champions League semifinal against Bayern Munich.
After a stunning Madrid comeback, Bayern defender Matthijs de Ligt appeared to have equalized the second leg at 2-2 when he scored deep into stoppage time.
But the assistant referee raised his flag for offside and head official Szymon Marciniak blew his whistle before the ball went in. Because play was stopped prior to the goal, there was no chance for a VAR review.
Real Madrid went on to win the match 2-1, advancing to the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund via a 4-3 aggregate score.
Bayern players and coach Thomas Tuchel fumed after the match, correctly pointing out that the referees’ action was against protocol that instructs officials to let a sequence play out if there is a borderline offside call.
On the podcast he hosts with his brother Felix, even Kroos admitted that Bayern had a legitimate gripe.
“It’s bad handling. You have to let play continue,” the Germany international said. “I think the mistake is primarily the linesman’s.”
“If he raises the flag now, the referee assumes that his linesman sees it exactly that way and trusts him that it was probably three meters offside,” Kroos added. “The anger is justified because you just have to play the situation to the end, 100%.”
Kroos also said that he was unsure if De Ligt would have actually scored if there were no whistle, because Madrid’s players switched off as soon as they heard it.
“I don’t know if there was a collective switching off because you could hear the whistle very early,” Kroos said. “You could tell the tension dropped among everyone who wanted to defend this goal.”
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