Chelsea fought against Real Madrid until the end, but it was not enough to reach the semi-finals in the premier class. Coach Thomas Tuchel then showed himself to be a bad loser.
Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel has criticized the Polish referee Szymon Marciniak after the dramatic Champions League exit at Real Madrid.
“I was disappointed that the referee was having fun with my colleague Carlo Ancelotti,” said Tuchel after the 3-2 (3-1, 1-0) after extra time in the second leg of the quarter-finals in Madrid, which ended after the 1-3 Defeat in the first duel was not enough to qualify for the semi-finals (Read more about it here).
“Very wrong timing” of the conversation
When he wanted to thank Marciniak for the game after the game, he saw him “smile and laugh out loud with the opposing coach”. According to Tuchel, this was a “very wrong time”. At the same time, Tuchel felt a bit disadvantaged in both games. “I felt in both games that 51 percent of all decisions went to the other side. But that’s how it is when you play Real Madrid in the Champions League,” he told BT Sport.
Tuchel Marciniak’s decision to withdraw Marcos Alonso’s supposed 3-0 lead (62nd) after intervention by the video assistant for handball was particularly annoying. “I didn’t see the goal but I told him I was very disappointed that he didn’t go out and check it himself,” said Tuchel. As Tuchel went on to say, in such a game the main referee should “remain the boss and not leave the decisions to someone in a chair”.
All in all, after the game at Tuchel, disappointment and pride in his team’s race to catch up were balanced. “It’s the kind of defeat that you can digest and swallow because there’s nothing to regret. We left everything on the pitch,” said the German: “We deserved to go through. It wasn’t supposed to be today . We just weren’t lucky.”