The case for video referees has become stronger after Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo scored a controversial hat-trick to send Bayern Munich crashing out of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. The Portuguese star was narrowly offside two times in extra time as he set Real on course to a 6-3 aggregate victory while Bayern were also left fuming after Arturo Vidal was wrongly given a second yellow card for a clean tackle.
The fact that such a high-profile match ended in a massive controversy involving one of the greatest names in football should result in the fast-tracking of the introduction of video technology at all big tournaments across the world.
On Tuesday, although Bayern Munich were hailed for a courageous performance but were left to reflect on what might have been.
“That’s football, that’s life,” defender Jerome Boateng said after the match. “It was magnificent football, but unfortunately the refereeing decisions went against us,” Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.
“The red card was a heavy blow of course. But if you blame the team today you’ve seen the wrong match. It was a superb game.”
However, Bayern were also beneficiaries from refereeing decisions as they were gifted a non-existent penalty in the first leg and earned another spot-kick in the second meeting which was far from certain. And their own second goal in Madrid may also have been — fractionally. Ultimately Bayern went toe-to-toe with the reigning European champions, a side turned into a winning machine by coach Zinedine Zidane, and came up only marginally short.
Bayern’s effort in taking the game to a 3-3 draw after two sets of 90 minutes was despite missing key players Mats Hummels and Robert Lewandowski from the first game.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti, on paper, has not matched previous boss Pep Guardiola’s run to three Champions League semi-finals with Bayern but could not fault his players, saying, “We came very close to the semi-finals.”
Ancelotti will also reflect that his best eleven is very close to the required standard, even if depth in his squad to cope with two or three important absences is not there.
But Bayern can take hope from the fact that they can still turn the season into a domestic success with two titles.
They will have to do it, though, without goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who broke his foot in the game.
Neuer, outstanding in both legs against Real, was injured in extra-time and will miss the final stretch of the season with Bayern leading by eight points in the Bundesliga with five matches remaining.
They also host rivals Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup last four next week.
With only one win from their last three league matches, Bayern know only victory will do against lowly Mainz 05 on Saturday to tighten their grip on a record-extending fifth straight league title and avoid seeing second-placed RB Leipzig close in even further. A domestic double would somewhat ease their pain of missing out on the European title.
