Thomas Muller joins Bayern Munich's furious response to refereeing – 'It happens a lot in Madrid'
Bayern Munich icon Thomas Muller joined team-mate Matthijs de Ligt and manager Thomas Tuchel in expressing their disbelief that Real Madrid were once again entitled to an arbitration ruling against him. His exit at Real Madrid in 2017 brought with it plenty of controversy, and Wednesday night's defeat went down in similar fashion.
Their complaints revolve around an offside call against Muller, where footage appears to show the German striker in the game, despite Noussair Masraoui being slightly offside. Against UEFA guidelines, the linesman immediately raised his flag and the referee blew his whistle, and as the Real Madrid players stood on the whistle, de Ligt fired the ball into the net a second later to the whistle.
Thomas Muller says the decisions always seem to go against him in Madrid. pic.twitter.com/GjmQhU6cep
— Football Spain (@footballespana_) May 9, 2024
You never know if de Ligt would have scored, but Bayern were outraged that they were not allowed to find out.
“He whistled for offside, this means that the VAR could no longer intervene. The referee did not go to the VAR. He did not even have the opportunity to go and see. A situation like this is very strange, he blows the whistle so quickly. It happens a lot here in Madrid… I saw it a few years ago, with two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, but it was before VAR,” Muller told RMC Sport, via. Sport.
“It's a big, big mistake!”@mdeligt_04 was very frustrated with that late offside decision. @adriandelmonte with the questions. #beingINUCL #UCL #RealMadridBayern pic.twitter.com/3g6FjZaZYf
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) May 8, 2024
Tuchel had called it a betrayal, and said that Real Madrid was always on the right side of the referees, while de Ligt still could not understand why the referees made the decision on different criteria to how they did for the rest of the match and the competition. The Dutch defender said the linesman apologized to him as well. Bayern Sporting Director Max Eberl also said it was a miscarriage of justice, saying “the referee admitted the mistake”.
Manager of Real Madrid Carlo Ancelotti sacked his claims after the match, stating that a goal previously disallowed for a foul by Nacho Fernandez was canceled because Joshua Kimmich dived.
