De Ligt controversially denied last-minute goal in Champions League match: VAR controversy erupts with injury time confusion

The Netherlands international thought he had scored 2-2 deep into injury time (which lasted fifteen minutes) so he called for extra time, but the goal was disallowed as Noussair Mazraoui was upset. The video referee (VAR) could no longer be called in, as the referee had blown the whistle immediately when the linesman appeared.

De Ligt would have asked the linesman to keep his flag down so the VAR could still assess the situation. Something the other linesman did a few minutes earlier at Real. He raised a flag late enough, allowing Joselu’s goal to be deemed valid by the VAR.

“These are the rules,” said De Ligt. According to him, the referee later admitted that he was wrong. “But I’m not buying anything for that.”

De Ligt also said that he is not the one who wants to blame the referee. “Real have won the Champions League fourteen times. It’s always easy to talk about the referee afterwards, but Madrid won and they deserve it.”

This is not the first time De Ligt has missed out on a Champions League place in the final minutes. Just five years ago, he suffered a 3-2 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur by Ajax, meaning that the English reached the final.