NOS Football•tomorrow, 00:00
The Dutch international thought he had scored the 2-2 deep in injury time (which lasted fifteen minutes) and thus forced extra time, but the goal was disallowed because Noussair Mazraoui was said to have been offside. The video referee (VAR) could no longer be called in, because the referee had blown the whistle immediately when the linesman flagged.
De Ligt would have liked the linesman to keep his flag down so that the VAR could still assess the situation. Something the other linesman did minutes earlier at Real. He raised his flag late enough, allowing Joselu’s goal to be deemed valid by the VAR.
“They are the rules,” said De Ligt. According to him, the referee admitted afterwards that he was wrong. “But I don’t buy anything for that.”
De Ligt further said that he is not the person who wants to blame a referee. “Real have won the Champions League fourteen times. It is always easy to talk about the referee afterwards, but Madrid won and they deserve it.”
Exactly five years ago
It is not the first time that De Ligt has missed out on a final spot in the Champions League in the final minutes. Exactly five years ago, he suffered a 3-2 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur with Ajax, meaning the English reached the final.
Tags: Ligt speaks disallowed goal elimination Bayern shame
