FC Bayern failed bitterly and brutally in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Real Madrid. After a 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena in Munich The German record champion lost 2-1 at the Spanish Bernabeu. – the last phase states that FCB the knockout. Two scenes underline the brutality of failure.
Scene 1: Of all men, the best makes a mistake
The kicker database records five parades, all brilliant performances. Manuel Neuer makes Madrid’s attack desperate. Whether it’s Vinicius Jr. or Rodrygo, they will find their final opponent in the world-class national goalkeeper.
Despite the superiority of the home team, Bayern stays in the match for a long time and Real can even surprise in the second half. Thanks to Neuer, the final is within reach.
Then it gets brutal: when Vinicius Jr. makes an innocent long shot, the goalkeeper lets the ball deflect and substitute Joselu is allowed to score. “Of all people,” one would be inclined to say, Munich’s best player is making a decisive mistake. Neuer records the nasty touchdown 999,999 times out of 1,000,000 – or a ‘mistake in 100 years’, as Thomas Tuchel put it.
Defender Matthijs de Ligt also immediately defended his goalkeeper. “That can happen sometimes, that’s football too,” he continues. “It is of course extremely bitter. But he kept us in the game beforehand with world-class saves.” Pundit Michael Ballack said: “It’s really brutal to put yourself in Manuel Neuer’s shoes now.”
Neuer himself explained his mistake with Dazn as follows: “I must say that I expected the ball differently, more towards the chest. After that it went a bit higher and I didn’t expect there to be a little mole in the field.” This 1-1 draw was “brutal” for him too.
However, FC Bayern is not yet eliminated. But three minutes later. Joselu is back and thanks to the use of VAR the goal is recognized. Real on top, Bayern on the ground. There are eight minutes of nine-minute injury time left on the clock. This is where the second brutal scene from the Munich perspective comes.
Scene 2: Referee blows his whistle too early
It’s already the 113th minute, injury time of injury time. Joshua Kimmich shoots the ball far into the path of Noussair Mazraoui. Ferland Mendy intervenes with his head in the penalty area, but the ball ends up at de Ligt via Thomas Müller. From the turn he finishes and scores. 2:2, extra time! Or not?
Milliseconds earlier a whistle blew. Because the assistant’s flag went up due to alleged offside, referee Szymon Marciniak blew the whistle early. And suddenly all of Bayern’s frustration is unleashed on him Polish Referee. Müller storms towards Marciniak like a berserker, the entire Bayern bench goes into a frenzy.
Ultimately, it cannot be determined whether Mazraoui was actually offside – but the VAR could not intervene because the whistle came too early.
After the match there was great anger about the decision. Goal scorer De Ligt is stunned when he sees the scenes. “Unbelievable,” he says on Dazn. “We have the rule to always keep playing. It’s not completely clear, so you have to let it play through. You can’t ignore that at all. Unbelievable,” he continues. Müller also sees “no reason at all to end this scene so early and so quickly.”
For Tuchel, it is ultimately “the icing on the cake”, according to the coach at Dazn. “This decision is an absolute disaster.” As several Bayern stars later reported, Marciniak admitted his mistake during the match and apologized. But he could no longer be corrected.