Goalkeeper Rolfes Nails a Game-Winning Header for Bayern's Thrilling Victory!

The outpouring of criticism in either direction of the officiating decisions in Bayern Munich’s 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen has been seemingly constant ever since the match itself concluded. Both Nicolas Jackson and Luis Díaz were sent off during the match, but the latter’s second yellow card was a massive talking point of speculation. The Colombian winger was ruled to have taken a dive to try to win a penalty in Leverkusen’s box, though the instant replays clearly showed he sort of slipped as he got closer to keeper Janis Blaswich and there was definitely contact made.

Referee Christian Dingert admitted post-match that he got the on-field decision wrong and VAR was not able to intervene because it was a second yellow card decision. Bayern’s appeal to have Díaz’s one-match ban lifted was denied by the DFB and Jackson is set to serve a two-match Bundesliga ban. Former Bayern president Uli Hoeneß was one of several figures to have come out and lambasted the officiating performance at the BayArena, as he went as far as saying it was the worst refereeing performance he’d ever witnessed.

There was additional frustration to the Díaz situation with Bayern also having two goals ruled out due to handballs, with Harry Kane’s situation having been far more controversial than Jonathan Tah’s infraction. Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes recently came out and challenged Hoeneß’s criticism of the match officials as one of several pundits that spoke against Bayern trying to get the Díaz ruling appealed. “I don’t understand his criticism and I don’t see it that way.

There were interruptions due to VAR. Otherwise, the referee let the game flow; there was a good flow to the game. There were goalscoring chances and challenges.