Tuchel slams disastrous referee decision which denied Bayern late equaliser

Thomas Tuchel has torn into the officials of Bayern Munich's Champions League semi-final tie against Real Madrid after his side were denied a potential late equaliser.

Bayern crashed out of the Champions League in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night, leading the tie with three minutes to go but conceding two late goals to Joselu as Madrid booked their place at Wembley at the start of June.

But the former Stoke forward's strikes were only half the story, with Matthijs De Ligt netting in the 13th minute of injury time, only for Polish referee Szymon Marciniak to have blown his whistle for offside moments before.

Replays showed that the call was extremely tight, with Bayern's Noussair Mazraoui appearing at first glance to be onside despite the call. Due to the whistle already being blown, VAR could not intervene, with officials told to delay their calls in case they are wrong.

Tuchel, speaking to TNT Sports, revealed the assistant referee had apologised to him for flagging early in a move that could have cost his team the game.

'That was an absolute disaster,' the German said. 'A violation of the rules.

'This scene must be played out to the end. That's the rule. The linesman made the mistake, and the referee made the second mistake.

'We were almost there and a very unusual mistake of the best player for the equaliser, then we conceded in a very narrow decision in stoppage time. Then we scored one and it was a disastrous decision from the linesman and the referee, so it feels almost like a betrayal in the end because of that decision.

'The linesman said sorry. That does not help at that kind of level, to raise the flag in a decision like this, in a close decision in the last minute. The referee as well, he does not have to