🫨 Wrong free-kick call! Bundesliga star with brilliant fair-play act

🫨 Wrong free-kick call! Bundesliga star with brilliant fair-play act Dives, complaining to the referee, and endless arguments are always part of the daily routine on football’s big stage. Augsburg’s Michael Gregoritsch and referee Deniz Aytekin just showed during FCA’s away match at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion that things can be very different.

With the score at 1:0 for the visitors, the striker went down right on the edge of Hamburg’s penalty area in a challenge with Fabio Vieira. Aytekin awarded a free kick from a more than promising position — central, right on the edge of the box. Gregoritsch himself has converted free kicks like that in the past.

The TV replays clearly showed: Gregoritsch had slipped and, as he fell, even caught the Hamburg player on the foot. If anything, the situation was more the other way around than the referee had decided. Since it was not within the VAR’s area of responsibility, the experienced referee resorted to a rather unusual approach.

After some discussion on the pitch, he went over to Gregoritsch on the touchline level with the benches, where the player was waiting to be allowed back onto the field after the injury stoppage. Aytekin asked the striker whether it had been a foul or whether he had actually gone down because he slipped. The former Hamburg player appeared to answer truthfully, so Aytekin reversed the decision.