The VAR Review: Bayern’s offside ‘goal’ vs. Real Madrid

Video Assistant Referee causes controversy each week throughout Europe, and it even crops up within the Champions League.

On Wednesday evening, within the second leg of the semifinal between Actual Madrid and Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga membership had been desperately trying to find an equaliser.

Actual Madrid led 2-1, giving them a 3-2 mixture lead, within the thirteenth minute of added time (solely 9 had been signalled). Bayern needed to rating, however they had been thwarted by the offside flag and the referee blew his whistle. Bayern misplaced 2-1 and had been eradicated.

Bayern supervisor Thomas Tuchel was raging, calling it a “a disastrous determination from the linesman and the referee.”

So what occurred, who was responsible, and the way does this all work with VAR?

– How VAR selections have affected each Prem membership in 2023-24

What occurred?

The ball was performed into the Actual Madrid space, with Noussair Mazraoui difficult Ferland Mendy. The Los Blancos defender headed the ball away, and because the ball dropped into open area within the space, the assistant, Tomasz Listkiewicz, raised his flag. Referee Szymon Marciniak instantly blew the whistle.

Thomas Müller nodded the ball to Matthijs de Ligt, and he fired into internet previous Andriy Lunin — although the goalkeeper made no try to make a save due to the whistle, so you can’t say Bayern had been denied a objective. The Actual Madrid defenders could have been affected, too.

Play stopped on the whistle, so there was nothing the VAR might do. That is all about how and when the play ought to finish from a delayed flag.

Was Mazraoui onside?

As no objective was scored, there is not any VAR offside scenario to judged. So we can’t get the semiautomated offside visualisation for this, and we’ll by no means know for sure.

Nevertheless it appears to be like exceptionally shut, and Mazraoui could nicely have been marginally onside to the boot of Antonio Rüdiger.

Mazraoui’s act of difficult Mendy for the aerial ball is an offside offence, though he did not contact it.

Why did the assistant elevate his flag?

Assistants are instructed to maintain the flag down on shut offsides and solely elevate it when a objective is scored or on the finish of the attacking transfer.

Certainly, Actual Madrid’s successful objective within the 91st minute got here by way of this route. Joselu scored from a go by Rüdiger, and as quickly because the ball crossed the road the flag went up. The objective was awarded by way of a VAR overview, because the striker was behind the ball. That Bayern misplaced to a delayed flag once they had been denied by a untimely flag solely provides to their frustration.

The VAR Handbook states that the assistant “ought to delay the flag if an attacking participant has a ‘free run’ or is in an excellent scoring place transferring on to, or inside, the penalty space.”

For Listkiewicz, Bayern by no means gained possession from the unique go. It is headed away by Mendy and the offside Mazraoui didn’t proceed the assault. Had Mazraoui collected the go, or headed it to a teammate himself, the assistant could not have been so prepared to boost the flag.

So the assistant has finished nothing improper right here?

Technically no, however in a sport of such magnitude and at such a vital stage, it will have made rather more sense for Listkiewicz simply to carry the flag for a little bit longer to see what developed.

We see so many delayed flag conditions that appear to be fully unnecessary — as an example, when a participant is working to the nook or is offside by a big margin.

This can be a Champions League semifinal, one of many largest video games of the season. You’ve got obtained VAR, so simply wait a couple of extra seconds.

Nonetheless, Listkiewicz’s flag does not management the sport.

Does the referee share any of the blame?

Completely. He’s in command of when the sport is halted, so in the end, the buck stops with Marciniak. We’ll see quite a lot of examples throughout a season of an assistant elevating the flag too early, and the referee takes the choice to carry the whistle simply in case something develops.

Whatever the flag, Marciniak shouldn’t have stopped the play when the ball first fell to Müller. It ought to have been clear to him there was nonetheless an attacking scenario.

The VAR Handbook says: “If the assistant flags for a decent/unclear offside and a participant is about to attain a objective, the referee ought to delay the whistle till the objective outcomes in order that if the AR has made a ‘clear and apparent error’ the objective may be allowed.”

Marciniak’s position is about permitting the attacking part to finish, to not choose how shut the offside could have been. That is on Marciniak.

It isn’t been a stellar season for Marciniak, who refereed the 2022 World Cup closing and the 2023 Champions League closing. Listkiewicz was additionally the assistant for each showpiece video games.

Marciniak was the referee who wrongly awarded a VAR-advised stoppage-time penalty to Paris Saint-Germain towards Newcastle United in December, which was transformed and successfully resulted within the Magpies being knocked out of Europe.

However absolutely the attacking part wasn’t over?

The delayed flag and the attacking part (which the VAR can overview) are two totally different concerns.

If the assistant has recognized an offside, the flag ought to go up on the quickest level when there is not any clear attacking momentum.

Nonetheless, if the assistant does not spot an offside, the VAR can return by way of the entire part.

A defender heading the ball away and it dropping to an opposition participant does not rely as a reset of the reviewable VAR part. In a Premier League sport between Aston Villa and Sheffield United this season, Leon Bailey had a objective disallowed by way of VAR as goalkeeper Wes Foderingham was being held by Jacob Ramsey. That got here after a 5 opposition gamers had touched the ball — none of which reset the reviewable VAR part.