BERLIN: Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos criticized match officials for their controversial offside call which benefited his team against Bayern Munich during the Champions League semifinals.
Bayern defender Matthijs de Ligt thought he’d equalized to send last week’s game to extra time when he fired the ball into Madrid’s net in the 13th minute of stoppage time.
But referee Szymon Marciniak had already blown his whistle after his assistant quickly raised his flag for a possible offside infringement.
Too quickly, Kroos said Wednesday.
“It’s bad handling. You have to let play continue,” the Germany player said in a podcast he runs with his brother Felix. “I think the mistake is primarily the linesman’s.”
Bayern were trailing 2-1 and needed a goal to force extra time to keep alive their hopes of reaching the final. UEFA tells match officials not to stop play immediately for tight offside calls. And TV replays showed it was a very close call.
“If he raises the flag now, the referee assumes that his linesman sees it exactly that way and trusts him that it was probably three meters offside,” said Kroos, who said he understood Bayern’s frustrations.
“The anger is justified because you just have to play the situation to the end, 100 percent.”
Kroos said he was unsure if Madrid defenders would have stopped de Ligt’s shot had there not been an intervention from the referee.
“I don’t know if there was a collective switching off because you could hear the whistle very early,” Kroos said. “You could tell the tension dropped among everyone who wanted to defend this goal.”
Madrid won the second leg 2-1 to reach the final in London on June 1.
Borussia Dortmund will try to stop the Spanish giant from claiming its 15th European title.
Kroos criticizes match officials for offside call in Bayern-Madrid semifinal
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Kroos criticizes match officials for offside call in Bayern-Madrid semifinal
- “It’s bad handling. You have to let play continue,” the Germany player said in a podcast he runs with his brother Felix.
- “I think the mistake is primarily the linesman’s”
Al-Hilal win to cut Al-Nassr’s lead at the top to two points
- Reigning champions Al- Ittihad beat Neom 3-1 to end the year on a high after difficult title defence
- Leaders dropped their first points of the season on Tuesday after a 2-2 draw against Ettifaq
RIYADH: Al-Hilal have closed the gap on leaders Al-Nassr lead at the top of the Saudi Pro League table to two points after beating Al-Khollod 3-1 on New Year’s Eve.
The win saw Al-Hilal leapfrog Al-Taawoun into second place they now have 29 points from 11 matches, just two behind Al-Nassr, who on Tuesday dropped their first points of the season after a 2-2 draw with Ettifaq.
Al-Hilal took the lead through Sergei Milinkovic-Savic after 45 minutes there was still enough stoppage time for Ramiro Enrique to equalize form the penalty spot. Two second half goals from Theo Hernandez secured a vital three points for Al-Hila.
Earlier in the day reigning SPL champions Al-Itttihad beat hosts Neom 3-1 to go fifth in the table and end the year on n relative high after a difficult defence of their title so far in this campaign.
Roger Fernandes opened the scoring on 14 minutes from Steven Bergwijn’s assist, but Said Benrahma equalized 13 minutes later for teams to go into the break on equal terms.
Second half goals by Bergwijn and Ahmed Al-Ghamdi secured a morale-boosting win for Al-Ittihad.
In Wednesday’s other match, Al-Qadsiah beat hosts Al-Shabab 3-2 to stay fifth in the table.
