Thomas Müller on Bayern Munich’s ruled-out equaliser against Real Madrid: “It’s an incredible mistake, an incredible blunder.”
When the final whistle blew on Wednesday evening, the Santiago Bernabéu became a cauldron of noise. However, as the Real Madrid players celebrated with adoring supporters, Bayern Munich were left outraged.
With almost the final kick of the game, Der Rekordmeister believed they had found the all-important equalising goal. Nevertheless, prior to the ball being placed in the Real Madrid net, Szymon Marciniak, the referee on the night, had already blown his whistle for an offside flagged by the linesman.
When the replays were shown, it became quite clear that the play should have been allowed to continue due to how close the call was. While it is not unknown as to whether Noussair Mazraoui was onside or not, speaking to Sky Austria after the game, Thomas Müller stated his displeasure with the decision:
“I haven’t seen a line drawn yet. But of course, it’s an incredible mistake, an incredible blunder. The referee is certainly an excellent referee, but to blow the whistle in a scene like that, when the ball is in the air and we’re about to fight for the second ball…”
“But that’s no use to us if it really wasn’t offside. We often see that defenders have to sprint back, even though it was clearly three metres off the mark. In such a situation, raising the flag in such an important game is wonderful, but he should never blow the whistle straight away when it’s so close.”
Bayern gave everything
However, over the course of the game, Bayern fell short, as Real Madrid proved too much for the record champions. Regardless, Müller remarked that he was proud of his side’s performance:
“Overall, you can say: We put up a huge fight and left our hearts and sweat on the pitch. We also suffered in this game. It’s not like Real Madrid came out of nowhere and scored a goal, but of course, they also had periods of pressure. But when you lead like that shortly before the end, you definitely want to get over the line.”
“The ball then hits Manu in the chin, and we saw the rest. In the end, it’s just a matter of millimetres: offside or no offside… It’s difficult; there’s some big analysis to swing that makes everyone happy. Everyone really exhausted themselves until the end.”
“It looked like this time the tables were turned and that Real might not win the game and end up empty-handed. Of course, they will still tell the story of their jersey and the holy Bernabéu again, and unfortunately, the result proves them right.”
On the night, it was just not meant to be for Bayern. It will now be Borussia Dortmund flying the flag for German football in the Champions League final, but will they be able to live with a Real Madrid side that is custom-built for this competition?
GGFN | Will Shopland
