'Disaster!' - Tuchel rages at decision to disallow De Ligt goal in defeat to Real Madrid

Thomas Tuchel has raged at the “absolute disaster” decision that denied Matthijs de Ligt a late equaliser for Bayern Munich against Real Madrid.

The Bundesliga outfit had been leading the heavyweight semi-final tie with three minutes left on the clock, but – having taken the decision to replace 44-goal striker Harry Kane – suffered a dramatic collapse as Blanco's substitute Joselu netted twice in the space of three minutes.

Bayern thought they had snatched a 113th-minute equaliser when Dutch defender De Ligt hit the net, but play had already been stopped for a debatable offside call and the effort was chalked off – and could not be reviewed by VAR.

Match officials are told to delay such calls when decisions are so tight, with Noussair Mazraoui potentially level with the last man, and Bayern boss Tuchel told TNT Sports afterwards: “That was an absolute disaster. A violation of the rules. 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. We were almost there and a very unusual mistake of the best player for the equaliser, 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. 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 in the last minute. The referee as well, he does not have to whistle, he sees that we win the second ball, he sees that we get the shot away. To whistle is a very, very bad decision. 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.”


Tuchel 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, made the decision to whistle. It wouldn't have happened the other way round. We accept the apology (from the linesman) but this is not the time to apologise. It's the semi-finals and it's not the time to make those sorts of mistakes.”

Real are now through to another Champions League final, where they will face more German opposition in the form of Borussia Dortmund, while Bayern are being left to reflect on a campaign that will see them finish without a major trophy for the first time since 2011-12.