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1. FSV Mainz 05 lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday afternoon. A first-half decision left Mainz baffled, with captain Nadiem Amiri unable to understand the referee's call.
Shortly before half-time, Jae-Sung Lee headed in Amiri's free-kick for what appeared to be a 1-1 equaliser for the hosts. Referee Robert Schröder initially gave the goal, then overturned it after a VAR review. Lee had been narrowly offside when the free-kick was taken.
Both teams had already lined up in their respective halves for the restart when VAR stepped in. The footage showed Lee had indeed been offside. Manuel Neuer, who had come off his line, and Jonathan Tah had both touched the ball slightly before it reached him. Neither Bayern defender had played it in a controlled manner, so the offside decision stood.
Despite the footage, Amiri could not understand the decision. "At first, I didn't even realise why. Above all, the referee had already blown his whistle and pointed to the centre spot again. But then he said Lee was offside. To me, though, that's not offside. They have to find some way of saying that maybe you're allowed to be half a metre offside, because that's just not offside," the international said in frustration afterwards on Sky.
Team-mate Philipp Tietz, who scored in the closing stages to make it 2-1, was also perplexed when speaking to Sky : "All of a sudden, it was overturned and didn't count after all. A very strange incident."
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Between Lee's apparent goal in the 40th minute and the final decision in the 44th, a full four minutes passed. Mainz's social media team also reacted strongly to the lengthy review on X: "This is ridiculous. After almost four minutes, the goal suddenly doesn't count after all … Unbelievable!"
Bayern went into half-time 1-0 up. Joshua Kimmich had earlier put the Munich side ahead with a spectacular goal. In the 57th minute, Lennart Karl made it 2-0 after another assist from Harry Kane. Mainz fought to avoid defeat, but Tietz's goal came only in stoppage time and was too late.
For Mainz, it was a fourth consecutive defeat in a competitive match, including three in the Bundesliga. The Rhenish Hessians slipped to tenth in the table.