‘There was a hand that tilted it to the wrong side for us’ —Vincent Kompany unhappy about inconsistent refereeing for Bayern Munich

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Paris Saint-Germain handed a disappointing end in the Champions League for Bayern Munich. The home side fell short in important moments. This was amplified by some terrible calls from the referee which killed potential game changing moments for the Bavarians.

Davies handball vs. João Neves handball

The Bayern coach pointed out two incidents and the marked difference in the match official and VAR’s policy. There have been explanations as to why Neves’ handball cannot be called a penalty. The shot originating from the player of the same team, away from the direction of the goal and not being intercepted by a Bayern player allows the ref to let it go. However, the entire officiating squad in the first leg did not show the same spirit in sticking to the letter of the law in the first leg.

The penalty awarded for the handball by Alphonso Davies was a huge blunder. The ball made contact with Davies’ body before getting deflected on to his hand. The direction change due the deflection from the body meant the ball could not have reached the middle. That should not have been called a penalty, but sadly the ref enthusiastically awarded PSG a free goal. The VAR surprisingly or rather unsurprisingly did not remind the ref of the rules for such situations.

The invisible hand of the referee

The biggest hand in all of this was referee João Pinheiro’s according to Vincent Kompany. “Why is it not a red card? I don’t understand. Why we concede a penalty in Paris and we don’t receive one here? I understand the rules, but the hand was above his head,” said Kompany to (as captured by ). “It felt like there was a hand that tilted it to the wrong side for us,” he added. VK, however did not blame the loss on the ref alone, but such talking points about poor officiating should ideally not be there in any high profile game. The best referee is after all, the one least spoken about.