“He’s a Fixer !”: Borussia Dortmund players Furious at controversial refereeing in the Der Klassiker


“He’s a Fixer !”: Borussia Dortmund players Furious at controversial refereeing in the Der Klassiker

The Der Klassiker is by far the biggest and the most important match in the Bundesliga. It is the name given to the historic derby between two of the biggest clubs of Germany, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Being undeniably the best German team in the history of the game, Bayern Munich have imminently had a better record against their arch-rivals Dortmund in the derby. 

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The Bavarians have won convincingly in the last 9 meets with Die Borussen and they maintained their winning run in Der Klassiker last night as well by defeating them 3-2. However, their victory last night has been stained by a lot of controversy regarding the refereeing standards. So much so, that even the Borussia Dortmund players publicly addressed the issue in the post match conference and openly criticised the match-referee Felix Zwayer.  

Let’s first come to the incidents that have caused all this mess. Well the German referee firstly denied Borussia Dortmund two of their penalty claims rather bluntly. The most staggering one was when Marco Reus fell down in the box after a rough tackle by Lucas Hernandez but the referee simply ignored it. He even did not care to refer the VAR and Erling Haaland said in the post match conference that the referee was very ‘Arrogant’. 

Erling Haaland’s comments on referee Felix Zwayer

Erling Haaland said that referee Felix Zawyer was ‘rude’

The Norwegian goal-machine complained after the match, “I think it was a scandal when it comes to the referee. I asked him [Zwayer] ‘why didn’t you just go and look?’ He said: ‘No, there is no need.’

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“I need to calm down a little bit now. He was arrogant, and I will not say more.”

The penalty claims did BVB more harm than good as their head coach Marco Rose was also sent off due to his protests. 

Things took a drastic turn during the final moments of the game when Felix Zwayer awarded Bayern a match-winning penalty which was again a controversial decision. Matt Hummels, who was covering his face after stumbling down inside the box, saw the ball hitting his elbows and after referring VAR, Zwayer directed towards the spot.

Matts Hummels’ Handball

This was more than the Borussia Dortmund fans and players could fathom and they were furious at full time. 

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What Jude Bellingham said after the match

Jude Bellingham assisted both the goals of Borussia Dortmund against Bayern

Adding to Erling Haaland’s statement targeting the referee, Jude Bellingham, who provided two assists in the match, said, “For me, it wasn’t a penalty. You give a referee that has, you know, match fixed before, the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect?”

Referee Felix Zawyer was found guilty of taking a bribe to influence his decisions in favour of association football club Wuppertaler SV back in 2005. 

Also Read:- WATCH: Julian Brandt loses consciousness after head on collision with Dayot Upamecano in Der Klassiker