It’s not just Celtic fans who believe their team should have been awarded a free-kick before Bayern Munich’s gut-wrenching equalizer on Tuesday night.
Manager Brendan Rodgers felt that Dayot Upamecano’s contact with Daizen Maeda’s face warranted intervention from the French referee, though he acknowledged that Maeda might have benefited from staying down longer to draw the official’s attention—highlighting the kind of tactical awareness often required at the highest level.
Despite Upamecano checking on Maeda after the incident, play continued, and Celtic were ultimately dealt a cruel blow.
After Kasper Schmeichel made a superb reaction save to deny Leon Goretzka’s header, Alphonso Davies proved too quick for Cameron Carter-Vickers, whose attempted clearance was pounced on by the Canadian, who bundled the ball into the net from close range. The goal made it 1-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate, sending Bayern through and Celtic crashing out.
Fans have questioned why VAR didn’t review the Maeda incident to determine if the goal should have been disallowed. However, IFAB laws clarify this situation, as the incident did not occur within the attacking phase of play that led to the goal.
VAR officials determine these phases, and while Bayern did launch an attack immediately after the incident—which happened at the 92:29 mark—it did not directly result in Davies’ goal.
The goal came over a minute and a half after the incident, and since a new phase of play had already begun, VAR could not revisit the earlier phase to check for potential fouls.
IFAB laws state: “For decisions/incidents relating to goals, penalty/no penalty and red cards for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO), it may be necessary to review the attacking phase of play which led directly to the decision/incident; this may include how the attacking team gained possession of the ball in open play.”
so we got cheated by var as well as the ref lol