Thomas Tuchel slams 'absolute disaster' of a decision to deny Bayern Munich a late equaliser against Real Madrid in dramatic Champions League semi-final defeat and blames two officials from tight belly stuffing Watch Video

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✓ Published: 09-May-2024

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Thomas Tuchel has torn into the officials of Bayern Munich's Champions League semi-final tie against Real Madrid after his side was denied a potential late equalizer.<br/><br/>Bayern crashed out of the Champions League dramatically on Wednesday night, leading the tie with three minutes to go but conceding two late goals to Joselu as Madrid booked their place at Wembley at the start of June.<br/><br/>But the former Stoke forward's strikes were only half the story, with Matthijs De Ligt netting in the 13th minute of injury time, only for Polish referee Szymon Marciniak to have blown his whistle for offside moments before.<br/><br/>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, with officials told to delay their calls in case they were wrong.<br/><br/>Tuchel, speaking to TNT Sports, revealed the assistant referee had apologized to him for flagging early in a move that could have cost his team the game. <br/><br/>'That was an absolute disaster,' the German said. 'A violation of the rules. <br/><br/>'This scene must be played out to the end. That's the rule. The linesman made the mistake, and the referee made the second mistake.<br/><br/>'We were almost there and a very unusual mistake of the best player for the equalizer, 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.<br/><br/>'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 at the last minute. The referee as well, does not have to whistle, he sees that we win the second ball, and he sees that we get the shot away. To whistle is a very, very bad decision.<br/><br/>'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.'<br/><br/>He added: 'Having the balls to raise the flag in a situation like that is a big mistake. And then the referee, when he saw that we won the rebound, decided to whistle. It wouldn't have happened the other way round.<br/><br/>'We accept the apology (from the linesman) but this is not the time to apologize. It's the semi-finals and it's not the time to make those sort of mistakes.'<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>Bayern will now go trophyless for the season for the first time in over a decade.<br/><br/>'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.<br/><br/>'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