“I’m speechless”
Referee Brych leaves angry Frankfurters stunned
October 19, 2024, 6:42 p.m
Eintracht Frankfurt narrowly loses the top game of the Bundesliga at Bayer Leverkusen. A scene in the final minute provides plenty to talk about. Those responsible at Eintracht blame the referee. But not just in this scene.
Great excitement in the BayArena: First the angry Eintracht Frankfurt officials called for a penalty in the final phase in vain, then after the narrow defeat in a turbulent game at Bayer Leverkusen they did not spare any criticism of the referee. He appreciated referee Felix Brych, said coach Dino Toppmöller after the 1:2 (1:1) with the double winner: “But the performance today, I’m a bit speechless. Unfortunately, not everyone on the field was in top form today. That “I deserved this game.”
A contentious scene shortly before the end caused a lot of conversation. Leverkusen’s national player Jonathan Tah had lightly pushed Eintracht striker Hugo Ekitiké as he jumped up to head the ball just in front of the empty goal (90′). Toppmöller and sports director Markus Krösche saw a “very clear penalty”. After a mistake by goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, the Finn had shot Tah while trying to clear the ball, the attacker was on his way to a possible equalizer in this top game in the Bundesliga. “It was a clear foul. The boys are sitting in the dressing room dejected and angry,” said the coach.
Ekitike was clearly “in the air” and then he made contact from behind. “You lose your balance,” said Toppmöller: “Otherwise he’ll head it from three meters into the empty goal. If he doesn’t see that and check it, we don’t need the video evidence. That annoyed us extremely, the boys are very angry. ” Bayer’s sports director Simon Rolfes saw it differently, he said: “You can still touch people, we don’t play contactless.”
Leverkusen’s coach Xabi Alonso also didn’t see any problems in the scene: “The action was very intelligent by Jonathan Tah, he did it well.” Hradecky, who played his 300th Bundesliga game for Bayer and was the first foreign keeper to reach this mark, was relieved that his mistake ultimately went unpunished. “It was a very unfortunate scene, we were really lucky.”
According to the video images, Brych had previously given a penalty for Bayer and Frankfurt. “For me, far too many penalties are whistled with the VAR. And the one he has to give is not whistled,” criticized Sky expert Dietmar Hamann.
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