Referee Blunders Spur On Real Madrid's Murdalization Of Bayern Munich

Real Madrid scored three goals in about 10 rampaging minutes of extra time against 10-man Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals to win 4-2, and advance to the semifinals, 6-3 on aggregate. And while Bayern blew it and Real made the plays they needed to win it, it’s hard not to come away from the match with one overarching thought: referees suck.

There were a cascade of bad calls that slowly and steadily ate away at Bayern’s comeback hopes. Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski was through on goal in the 66th minute and was wrongly called offside, Real Madrid’s Casemiro should have gotten a second yellow for a vicious challenge in the 79th minute, Bayern’s Arturo Vidal was sent off in the the 84th minute when he was given a bogus second yellow of his own, and then there was Cristiano Ronaldo’s first extra time goal. With Bayern ahead 2-1, Ronaldo scored this goal, which was miles offside:

Here’s the still:

Despite the obvious missed call—and offside calls don’t get much clearer than that—Bayern were still in it. One more goal would see them through on aggregate. But Brazilian right back Marcelo, Madrid’s best player on the night, dumped a bucket of ice water on Bayern’s hopes of advancing when he blew through a pack of defenders and unselfishly fed a beautiful ball to Ronaldo, who had the easy job of slotting it home:

Ronaldo was offside on this goal, too, though it’s very close and not nearly as egregious as the first extra time goal. But the linesman (on the top of the screen) was well behind the run of play and not even in a position to make the call.

The third goal, the product of a silky run and perfect finish from Marco Asensio, was just insult to injury:

Ronaldo got his hat trick and became the first player ever to score 100 goals in the Champions League. Congratulations to the incompetent linesmen.