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Madrid, May 9 (IANS) A battle between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich is the biggest rivalry in European football. The two teams have met time and time again in the biggest club competition in the world.
On Wednesday, the two teams met in an epic battle at the Santiago Bernabeu with Real Madrid progressing to their 18th Champions League final.
Unfortunately, in what was a chaotic final 20 minutes of the game which saw two goals being scored, two goals being disallowed and many fights breaking out, the brilliance of the two teams was overshadowed by controversy with Bayern defender, Matthijs De Ligt even claiming that the assistant referee apologised for the late call which saw the referee blow the whistle on an offside decision seconds before the Dutch center back scored what would have been the equalizer.
Following the emotional encounter, many players and both coaches had a lot to say about what just transpired on the pitch.
"The linesman said to me, ‘I'm sorry, I made a mistake', The rule says that if it’s not clear offside, you have to keep playing and if you go in the last minute and you whistle like this, I think this is a big mistake. If it’s offside or not, I don’t know, VAR can check it, but if you don’t check it, how can you see it? This is a shame,” said a dejected Matthijs De Ligt.
"Very difficult. This is a semifinal, it's not the moment for apologies. Really not. It's not the moment for two huge violations of rules and then an apology. We all have to go to our limits, all have to suffer, all have to play without mistakes. The referees at this level also have to do that. When you don't deliver, it doesn't help when you apologize, even though of course as sportsmen we accept it," said FC Bayern manager, Thomas Tuchel.
The moment was brilliant, to score my first Champions League goal against a team like Madrid but when it's all said and done, we didn't make it to the final," said Alphonso Davies who has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid this summer.
"The offside episode is simple to explain. Maybe it wasn't offside, but the referee whistled (before the goal) and we stopped playing. That's it. Bayern complaining about the offside? OK, then we complain about the canceled goal of Nacho. Kimmich dived," said Ancelotti.
"We put Real Madrid in another final, today we played for our injured teammates, for our family, for the Bernabéu and we played for this shirt that always does incredible things," said the Man of the Match, Vinicius Jr.
– IANS
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