Bayern Leverkusen-Bayern, a VAR masterclass

The fight in between Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern will go down in history not only because of the result – the team from Xabi Alonso his former team 2-1 and the Bavarians lost to Borussia Dortmund- but due to the intervention of VARwho was seen as something exemplary.

“I made two mistakes on the field. I have to thank the basement in Cologne twice (where VAR is centralized in the Bundesliga) for their wonderful support,” said the referee at the end of the game. Tobias Stieler.

Styler Not only did he make two mistakes but he did it in two scenes that in the end -through the intervention of VAR- were decisive in the final result.

Surprisingly, both scenes were done by the same player, amen adli. Twice Stieler believes Adli faked a foul inside the box. He showed him the yellow card twice.

VAR alerted him in both cases, Styler He reviewed the images, revoked Adli’s card and allowed two penalties – the first for lack of Benjamin Pavard and the second, of Dayot Upamecano– which gave victory to Bayer Leverkusen.

The second time Stieler took back Adli’s card, the referee and the player couldn’t stop laughing. The first Stieler shook Adli’s hand to apologize. The second is the referee and the player hugging each other.

“Today there was an example of perfect collaboration with VAR. Now, VAR saved my life and it saved the life of the game,” explained Stieler. Styler He also maintained that both teams were satisfied with the decisions and players from both teams congratulated him at the end of the match.

the captain of Bayern, Thomas Müllerand his coach, Julian Nagelsman, they admitted at the end of the pledge that on both occasions the VAR decision was correct. “It’s a foul, there’s nothing to discuss about that. We have to talk about other things,” Müller said in his review of the game when he was shown the image of the first penalty.

nagelsmannFor his part, he commented that in both cases from the bench he saw that it was a foul before the intervention of VAR. “I am a defender of VAR and its use is correct. There are two penalties and it is good that they have been sanctioned for the sake of fair play”, he highlighted.

“In both situations I had a good vision and I saw immediately that there were two penalties. The first time I thought that quick he received a blow on the heel. The second one, in any case, he clearly didn’t throw it away,” he added. Nagelsmann.

The goalkeeper and captain of Leverkusen, Lukas Hradecky, had words of praise for Stieler. “He doesn’t need to apologize,” he said, referring to the two times he did this to Adli. “You have to give him great praise. He corrected himself twice and that is a sign of greatness,” he added.

In both cases, Stieler’s mistakes were obvious, one of the conditions for a VAR intervention to take place. In addition, the revision took a very short time, which in principle should always happen when the error is apparent.

One of the great defenders of VAR in Germany, the former referee marcus markused to tell an anecdote of one of the last games he whistled and that led him to request the introduction of video usage before it was implemented.

mark he scored a goal and, while one of the players from the affected team said he was offside, he watched the replay on the giant state screen and found that there had indeed been an offside that neither he nor his assistants had seen.

“You’re right but now there’s nothing I can do,” he said mark which he admitted to the player and then added that he wanted to have the power to correct the mistake.

Stieler, with the help of VAR, He already has that power. And he didn’t feel that correcting himself twice diminished his authority in front of the players.