Mats Hummels couldn't believe that referee Michael Oliver showed him the red card after his tackle in the duel with the Brazilian Antony.
But the Englishman, one of the better referees in the domestic Premier League, stuck to his decision made in a flash.
He didn't look at the game-winning scene of the Champions League group game between Borussia Dortmund and Ajax Amsterdam from the 29th minute on the monitor to be absolutely sure - or to revise his judgment.
And since there was no contradiction from the video assistant (VAR) Stuart Attwell, it stayed with Oliver's vote.
Hummels had to go, no matter how loud the Borussia Dortmund fans whistled.
The scene on the sideline, far from their own penalty area, which played a decisive role in the fact that Ajax also won the away game in Dortmund 3-1 two weeks later after the 4-0 triumph in the home game against BVB, was tantamount to a turning point, so the Until then, the match that had been determined by the Bundesliga runners-up disappeared behind the more than questionable decision of the referee.
BVB has to pay the price
The black and yellow defied the probability calculation of having to pay the price for the unequal playing conditions in the end, first with Reus' penalty goal (37th) to 1-0 after the VAR had made his colleague game director aware that the Amsterdam defender Mazraoui had unfairly brought down the Dortmund Englishman Bellingham in a duel in the sixteen-meter space.
That too was a decision that not everyone could understand, even if not as off the mark as Oliver's grip on the red card in the Hummels case.
After a long and courageous defense of the narrow lead, the Westphalians finally had to pay the price for their intensive attempt to save the lead at the finish.
With captain Tadic's equalizer (72nd), Borussia’s defense community began to crumble, so that former Frankfurt center forward Haller (83rd) and former Bremen professional Klaassen (90th + 3) scored the goals to win and qualify for the group leader reached the round of 16. The Black-Yellows, on the other hand, have to score at least points in the away game against Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon on November 24th in order to stay ahead in the direct duel for second place in Group C after the 1-0 win in the first leg.
But what is on the agenda in three weeks' time was hardly mentioned on Wednesday evening. The anger and excitement about being sent off for one of the fairest German defenders overshadowed all considerations. Hummels himself was stunned and beside himself with anger. Understandably, as he had touched his opponent Antony, who later initiated the second and third goals for Ajax, at best slightly with his sideways tackle - no matter how often he tossed around on the pitch to give the referee the impression that he was from Hummels had been hit hard, to confirm with a cheeky acting interlude.
A behavior that went against the grain of the sportsman Hummels. “He's a great footballer,” said the former German world champion, attesting the young Brazilian with a high level of quality on the ball and continuing his sentence sarcastically: “Now all he has to do is learn to be an athlete.” What Antony didn't tell the referee, he should Hummels called out when his early entry into the cabin could no longer be stopped. "Funnily enough, he came to me and said it wasn't a red card."
Once in the process of giving free rein to his sarcasm, the Dortmund defense chief, who will be missing from his team in Lisbon, attacked the referee, whom he attested to having made an “absurd wrong decision that decided the game”. In fact, Antony “got on his calf” in the scene of the game when Hummels thought that Oliver would watch the crucial scene again and then show him a yellow card “so that he doesn't look completely stupid”.
Case in point of think about it. After their show of strength on Wednesday evening, Hummels' team-mates, who continued the numerically unequal game against the strong, but also long-time stuck in his actions, no longer need to be accused of occasionally needing in tricky duels There is no mentality in the struggle for success. Captain Reus and his teammates exhausted themselves against Ajax until they were completely exhausted and up to the 72nd minute seemed on the verge of being able to defy their outnumbered with a victory anyway.
“We did well for a long time,” said coach Marco Rose, praising the courage of his players. “What should I blame my team for today?
When you have to play sixty minutes outnumbered in a Champions League game against Ajax Amsterdam, it's hard to get by. "Reus, who was a kind of chief clearer in his own penalty area in the second half on Wednesday, summed up the sullen evening as follows: "We left everything on the pitch, but unfortunately it wasn't enough."