Kroos opens up on the offside call that benefited Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final 2nd leg

Kroos Criticizes Officials in Real Madrid’s Controversial Victory over Bayern Munich

Real Madrid showed their character yet again in the semi-final 2^nd leg against Bayern Munich, but Kroos had a different opinion.

Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos did not think twice about criticizing the match officials, for their controversial offside decision which favoured his side against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinals.

Bayern had thought they equalized through defender Matthijs de Ligt to send the game to extra-time when he struck the ball into Madrid’s net in the 13^th minute of added time.

But referee Szymon Marciniak has already blown the whistle citing a flag raised by his assistant for a possible offside.

Kroos provides the wider picture.

On Wednesday, Kroos said,

“It’s bad handling. You have to let play continue,” the German player said in a podcast hosted by his brother Felix. “I think the mistake is primarily the linesman’s.”

Bayern were behind 2-1, needing a goal to force extra-time to keep their hopes of reaching the final. However, UEFA said not to stop play immediately for tight offside calls, and as per TV replay it shows it was a close call.

“If he raises the flag now, the referee assumes that his linesman sees it exactly that way and trusts him that it was probably three meters offside,” added Kroos, who empathises with Bayern’s frustrations. “The anger is justified because you just have to play the situation to the end, 100%.”

Kroos also said he was unsure if the Madrid defenders would have stopped De Ligt’s shot

had there not been any interventions from the referee.

“I don’t know if there was a collective switching off because you could hear the whistle very early,” Kroos said. “You could tell the tension dropped among everyone who wanted to defend this goal.”

Whatever is said and done, Madrid won the second leg 2-1 to reach the finals in London on June 1^st to play Borussia Dortmund.

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