Bayern Munich icon Thomas Muller has joined teammate Matthijs de Ligt and manager Thomas Tuchel in declaring his disbelief that Real Madrid were once again on the right side of a refereeing decision against him. Their elimination to Real Madrid in 2017 brought with it much controversy, and Wednesday night’s defeat went down similarly.
Their complaints revolve around an offside call against Muller, where images appear to show the German forward onside, despite Noussair Masraoui being slightly offside. Against UEFA directives, the linesman raised his flag immediately and the referee blew his whistle, and while the Real Madrid players stopped on the whistle, de Ligt fired the ball into the net a second after the whistle.
Thomas Muller says decisions always seem to go against him in Madrid. pic.twitter.com/GjmQhU6cep
— Football España (@footballespana_) May 9, 2024
It will never be known if de Ligt would have scored, but Bayern were indignant that they were not allowed to find out.
“He whistled for offside, that means the VAR could no longer intervene. The referee didn’t go to the VAR. He didn’t even have the opportunity to go see it. A situation like this is very strange, blowing 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 that was before VAR,” Muller remarked to RMC Sport, via Sport.
"It's a big, big mistake!"@mdeligt_04 was very frustrated with that late-offside decision. @adriandelmonte with the questions. #beINUCL #UCL #RealMadridBayern pic.twitter.com/3g6FjZaZYf
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) May 8, 2024
Tuchel had called it a betrayal, and said that Real Madrid were always on the right side of the referees, while de Ligt also couldn’t understand why the referees made the decision on different criteria to how they had done so for the rest of the match and competition. The Dutch defender said the linesman had apologised to him too. Bayern Sporting Director Max Eberl was also adamant that it was a miscarriage of justice, saying ‘the referee admitted the mistake to us’.
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti dismissed their claims after the match, claiming that an earlier disallowed goal for a Nacho Fernandez foul was chalked off because Joshua Kimmich dived.
Soooo…. Neuer fumbling the ball and effectively turning the game around is also a part of these wild Madrid-favoritism theories?