Aytekin declares himself after Derby
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On the 10th Bundesliga matchday, the VAR once again heated up tempers: in both Cologne and Berlin, the coaches struggled with the video referee’s decisions after their games. Referee Deniz Aytekin defended himself against criticism after the Rhenish derby and explained himself after taking center stage with a total of three penalties awarded.
Two penalties for Gladbach were only awarded after the VAR decision. In both cases, Aytekin initially did not whistle for a penalty. “The video assistant sent me out and then I saw that there was clearly clear contact in the knee area. And if we have this technology, we should use it,” said the 47-year-old about the first decision. Mönchengladbach won the duel against 1. FC Köln 3-1.
Aytekin also didn’t see the handball from Kristoffer Lund, who was also involved in the first penalty. “There were three players standing in front of me like a wall. What I then saw on the monitor was a clear penalty,” said the referee, who was also wrong about the third penalty when he punished an alleged foul on Ragnar Ache. Aytekin admitted: “That was certainly a tough penalty. I don’t know whether it would always be given. That obviously annoys me.”
Cologne keeper Marvin Schwäbe said about the scene after the game: “When I look at it like that, it makes me even more annoyed. It’s the movement towards the ball – should you chop off your arm? Is it a clear wrong decision or not? Of course it hits the arm, you can’t explain that away. But you don’t necessarily have to give it and not send the referee out.”
After the 3-1 defeat, the Cologne team obviously didn’t take kindly to the two decisions against them. “I don’t like the VAR, I hate the VAR. It distorts everything. I have the feeling that the VAR is the boss, no longer the referee,” said Cologne coach Lukas Kwasniok. FC sports director Thomas Kessler explained his dissatisfaction a little more diplomatically. “I think Deniz Aytekin is one of the best German referees. If we have one of the best referees on the pitch, who is relatively good and evaluates the situations in such a way that there are no penalties, we should have a discussion about when we should even send the referee out to the monitor,” said the 39-year-old.
The Gladbachers were unable to convert Haris Tabakovic’s first penalty, Kevin Diks took advantage of the second for Borussia. Luca Waldschmidt scored the dubious penalty for FC to make the final score 1:3.
Union celebrates, then VAR intervenes: Baumgart rages about “five millimeters”
The wafer-thin offside decision against his team with the help of video evidence also caused some anger for Union Berlin coach Steffen Baumgart on Saturday. “The first goal is a goal. Going offside because of those five millimeters meant someone was drinking paint. I’m sorry,” said Baumgart on “Sky” after his Köpenick team’s 2-2 draw against FC Bayern Munich.
Berlin’s supposed opening goal in the ninth minute by Ilyas Ansah was disallowed due to offside after the video referee intervened. It was difficult to see with the naked eye on the TV images with the calibrated line. Baumgart generally criticized such narrow decisions. “In Bremen the offside line doesn’t work, we need 45 minutes before we draw a line. And here we manage to draw it to 0.5 millimeters. For me it’s not reliable. We’re talking about the millimeter range,” said the coach.