Jürgen Klopp shows dismay at refereeing performance in Nürnberg tie

Sep 2, 2012 11:20:00 AM

The Dortmund manager has strongly criticised the standard of officiating during the 1-1 Bundesliga tie at Stadion Nürnberg

Jürgen Klopp has expressed his dismay at Tobias Welz’s refereeing performance in Borussia Dortmund’s 1-1 draw with Nürnberg on Saturday.

“What was unacceptable was the refereeing performance," he told Spox. "It is so hard to play football when that happens. We have been the fairest team for three consecutive years and today we got more yellow cards than Nürnberg. Nobody wanted to play unfairly today, but there were free kicks for no reason.”

Having fallen behind to a Tomas Pekhart header on 31 minutes, Dortmund did well to respond when Jakub Blasczczykowski equalised five minutes before half time.

The game became increasingly combative and Klopp blames the officials for the sporadic nature of the play and indeed the stagnated outcome, though he does lend some credit to Nürnberg’s tactics.

“The opposition made it very hard for us, playing in many one-on-one duels, man marking in order to take Mats (Hummels) and Marco (Reus) out of the game,” the German reported in the post-match press conference.

BVB now sit in fourth in the German top flight after two games, and while Klopp illustrated that a draw was not the exact outcome he had hoped for, he will take positives from the fact that his side remains unbeaten.

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