Thomas Tuchel furious with officials for 'against the rules' offside call

An incredulous Thomas Tuchel lashed out at the decision to rule out Matthijs de Ligt's late strike in Wednesday's defeat to Real Madrid, describing the offside call as "disastrous".

Bayern Munich had conceded two late goals to Madrid substitute Joselu and were on the cusp of elimination when, in the 13th minute of stoppage time, an early offside flag and referee whistle saw Madrid's defence slow down and allow De Ligt to fire into the back of the net.

Replays of the offside call were incredibly tight - some claim to have evidence that the wrong decision was made - and Tuchel was left livid by the choice to immediately stop the game, rather than follow the normal procedure and allow the game to play out before using a VAR review.

"That was an absolute disaster," he told TNT Sports. "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."

De Ligt went on to reveal his own conversation with the linesman as he pointed out how Madrid were allowed to benefit from a narrow offside decision at the other end of the pitch just minutes earlier.

"If it's offside, it's offside. But I think we made rules in football and the rules are if it's not a clear offside - which it wasn't because I don't see it yet, if it's offside or not - you have to keep playing," he told beIN SPORTS.

"If you go in the last minutes and you whistle like this, I think it's a big mistake. If it's offside or not you can check it, but if you don't check it, how can you see it? The second goal, [Antonio] Rudiger is almost offside. If he whistles, okay, but now there's a difference and this is a shame.

"The linesman said to me, 'I'm sorry, I made a mistake' - I can't buy anything for that. I'm not the type of person who wants to blame a loss or win on the referee but it means you have to win because you win 2-1. I think if it's a rule, it's a rule."

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