Speaking to BEIN Sports after Real Madrid snatched a last-gasp victory over Bayern Munich to confirm their progression to the UEFA Champions League final, Matthijs de Ligt explained that the linesman told him ‘sorry, I made a mistake’.
Bayern Munich seized the aggregate lead earlier on in the second half, but when Joselu bagged twice in quick succession in the dying minutes at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the visitors’ looked to be crashing out.
But as the clock ticked into the 12th minute of stoppage time, the linesman’s flag was prematurely raised just seconds before De Ligt bundled home – meaning that VAR was unable to review the offside decision, which appeared to be incorrect.
Embed from Getty ImagesIn a flash interview after the match, the Dutchman told BEIN Sports: ‘The linesman said to me: ‘Sorry, I made a mistake’.’
‘In the end, I’m not the type of person who wants to blame a loss or a win on the referee… but I think if it’s a rule, it’s a rule and that’s the only thing I can say about it.’
‘I said it already in two interviews: if it’s offside, it’s offside. But I think we made rules in football, and the rules say that if it’s not a clear offside – which it wasn’t, and I don’t see it yet if it’s offside or not – you have to keep playing.’
‘If you go in the last minute and you whistle like this, I think this is a big mistake and a big disgrace. If it’s offside or not, I don’t know and you can check it. But if you don’t check it, how can you see it?’
‘The second goal of Joselu was also almost offside,’ he added.
