In the game in Eindhoven, Dortmund had a questionable penalty against them. Hummels, the victim, fumed on TV and followed up on social media. His boss also made it clear.
Borussia Dortmund returned home from the first leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven with a 1-1 draw. In addition to the largely unconvincing performance, a controversial penalty whistle in particular caused a lot of discontent in the Dortmund camp.
So before the frustrating bus ride home through the Dutch night, Mats Hummels picked up his cell phone – and he gave his followers what they wanted to read. “What a joke about a penalty against us,” wrote the Borussia Dortmund veteran on the short message service X: “Again!”
His anger was not directed at the Serbian referee Srdjan Jovanovic at all, but rather at the video evidence procedure. “I can’t believe that there can be decisions like today, against Chelsea or against PSG with the VAR,” was how Hummels put it after the 1-1 draw in Eindhoven.
Watzke on referee: “Blatant mistake”
Hans-Joachim Watzke was also immediately reminded of the previous, also very controversial penalty whistles against BVB. “It’s slowly enough!” the angry managing director told the SID: “This referee’s decision is a blatant mistake.”
Hummels started a tackle in the penalty area, first played the ball, then lightly touched his opponent Malik Tillman with his trailing leg. Jovanovic stuck to his decision and Luuk de Jong equalized in the 56th minute. And Hummels? Even after his angry appearance on Prime Video, he still hadn’t calmed down. His followers were happy and he received a lot of encouragement.
BVB consultant Matthias Sammer was also beside himself in his role as an Amazon Prime expert: “It’s time for us to attack Uefa. What kind of job are they doing? This is a catastrophe, which people are they using?” Sammer complained about “too many bad decisions against German teams” and said: “I appeal to us to state things clearly in the committees. That was the sixth questionable penalty in the last two years!”
Terzic: “We catch too many penalties”
Coach Edin Terzić also addressed the penalty scene, but did not leave out the history. “We are taking too many penalties, that was a big issue in winter preparation,” said Terzić. “This only comes about because we don’t defend decisively enough.”
Despite all the anger, a little later the look went forward. “We can live with the result,” said Terzić: “We’ll take care of the rest in Dortmund.” In the second leg on March 13th.