Thomas Tuchel, Bayern’s coach, on Szymon Marciniak’s Decision and His Assistant Tomasz Listkiewicz on the Disallowed Goal – “It’s hard to swallow defeat; we were almost in the final,” said Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel after a 1-2 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, leading to their elimination from the tournament. He also criticized the decision of the Polish referees to disallow the goal that would have made it 2-2. “At this level, it’s unforgivable. It’s a grave mistake,” he declared.
On Wednesday evening, the Bavarians led 1-0 after a phenomenal goal by Alphonso Davies. However, in the 88th minute, Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made a mistake. After his uncertain intervention, substitute Joselu capitalized on the loose ball, leveling the score to 1-1. Such a result meant extra time. “The 88th minute is not the end of the match. Today, something unusual happened, as our best player on the field, Manuel Neuer, made a mistake that hadn’t happened to him before. Generally, though, we showed the will to fight and a lot of footballing quality,” Tuchel assessed.
A moment later, in the 91st minute, German defender Antonio Ruediger of the hosts passed to Joselu, who scored the second goal. Towards the end, Matthijs de Ligt found the net, but referee Szymon Marciniak disallowed the goal. His assistant, Tomasz Listkiewicz, raised the flag, signaling an offside position. “I’m very disappointed. I think the last offside decision was wrong. If there was an offside, it was minimal. But it was rather a catastrophic decision by the assistant referee and then the main one. It’s unforgivable at this level. It’s a grave mistake. You can’t raise the flag when you’re not sure it’s offside. It’s hard to swallow defeat; we were almost in the final. We lost after a fierce fight,” Tuchel emphasized.
“I’m proud of the team. The boys showed a lot of good things on the field. We were in great shape and could have advanced to the final, but this is sport. We left our hearts on the field. We accept the result,” he concluded.
In the final in London on June 1st, Real Madrid will face Borussia Dortmund.
Champions League 2023/24 Results of the Second Leg of the Semi-finals (* indicates advancement):
Tuesday, May 7th PSG – *Borussia Dortmund 0:1 (0:0); first leg – 0:1 Wednesday, May 8th *Real Madrid – Bayern Munich 2:1 (0:0); first leg – 2:2 Final – June 1st, London Borussia Dortmund – Real Madrid
