Julian Nagelsmann stomped out of the dressing room with resolute steps. It was obvious from afar that the Bayern Munich coach was seething. There were a lot of journalists waiting in the corridor, but at that second he didn’t seem to care that they would hear everything.
“That’s a joke, is he kidding me or what?” Nagelsmann called clearly after the 2: 3 at feared opponents Borussia Mönchengladbach and knocked resolutely on the door to the referee’s cabin. When he came out again after about two minutes, he cursed loudly for everyone in the mixed zone.
Nagelsmann apologizes to Welz
When asked in the interview by ZDF and Sport1 that he should have said “softened pack”, Nagelsmann said: “Yes, but I don’t always mean the referees.” In any case, he apologized to referee Tobias Welz on Twitter, whose early red card against Bayern defender Dayot Upamecano (8th minute) had triggered Nagelsmann’s anger.
“Emotions are part of sport,” he wrote: “And given the red card, I had to vent after the game. However, I have to apologize for the choice of words to Tobias Welz’s team. Unfortunately, I clearly went too far there .”
At the press conference, he finally asked that his statements not become the main topic of conversation. “Of course I was upset in the mixed zone. But please don’t put every word on the gold scales,” he said there: “There are emotions in this sport, that’s what it lives on. Not everything I say or say is right give me. So please don’t ask 18 questions and not on every title page.”
That will be difficult to avoid – although the sporting situation at FC Bayern already contains enough fuel. Because after the defeat after being outnumbered for more than 80 minutes, Bayern are threatened with falling from the top of the table 13 games before the end of the season if Union Berlin wins at home against FC Schalke 04 at the bottom this Sunday. In addition, Borussia Dortmund could catch up with a home win against the penultimate Hertha BSC. In Gladbach, Munich have been without a win for five competitive games, four of which they lost with 6:14 goals.
“No way” Welz decided the game, Nagelsmann said afterwards. Still, he was annoyed by the referee’s reaction, who refused to give interviews after the game. “I would just wish that a referee would say it wasn’t right. As I say as a coach, certain things don’t work, it was my mistake,” he said on Sky: “It’s also a person who Makes mistakes. Nobody can tell me that it’s a red card. Just say it’s not right, and then that’s good too.”
Gladbach’s Alassane Pléa fell in a running duel with Upamecano. “If I whistle a foul, it fulfills the criteria of the emergency brake,” said Nagelsmann: “But it just wasn’t a foul.” The action was observed in several still images. Pléa’s shoulder, where there was contact, “didn’t move a millimeter”. Upamecano even “did it cleverly. He moves away. Pléa stumbles over his body.”
Gladbach’s Hofmann with three scorers
In the 82 minutes that followed, the ten Munich players didn’t play badly. After Gladbach captain Lars Stindl (13′) went behind, they equalized through Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (35′). The outstanding Jonas Hofmann (55th), who prepared the other two goals, and Marcus Thuram (84th) shot the Gladbachers, who were rather disappointing this year, to victory, which keeps the door to Europe open. Mathys Tel shortened in the third minute of stoppage time.
Another pleasant side note for Bayern was the early substitution of Thomas Müller. Ironically, the ex-world champion, who had led the team as captain and with 429 Bundesliga appearances for Bayern now takes second place behind record player Sepp Maier (473) with Oliver Kahn, had to make a tactical change after a quarter of an hour because of the dismissal soft. “A shitty decision, I’m sorry for Thomas too,” said Nagelsmann.
Müller himself initially seemed to want to say something. He stood in front of the journalists and took a deep breath. But then he didn’t wait for a question, just said: “Fuck the course of the game. Ciao.” And went.
