Manuel Neuer doesn’t believe Jude Bellingham meant to injure Alphonso Davies during Der Klassiker

Bayern Munich drew Borussia Dortmund 2-2 in a nail-biting Klassiker, with a mixed bag of performances from both teams. Neither side really put their foot down and dominated the game and the questionable refereeing made it a game to forget. With all due respect to referee Deniz Aytekin, the decisions regarding Jude Bellingham’s incident with Alphonso Davies were awful. Manuel Neuer commented on the incident itself and the refereeing decision.

Per Tz, Neuer stated that the ‘kick’ was certainly not intentional, explaining Bellingham deserved to be defended for that. “We heard at half-time that [Davies’] head was too low,” he said, explaining the absence of a refereeing decision. “At the beginning we heard from the referees that hits to the head should be penalized with red. The referee has to do that with his support from Cologne,” he said, referring to the fact that in the end, it was the VAR setup at Köln that determined whether or not the situation warranted a card.

It is certainly the case that Bayern could have quite easily wrapped up the game right after the second goal. “We didn’t make the right decisions in the pits. If you make it 3-0, the bag is closed,” he explained. “The final concentration, the final consequence and the final focus were missing. Mistakes happen in football, but there have been too many lately,” he stated gravely.

While it is certainly the case that Bayern have been making costly mistakes, it is at this point in time that we must take a step back and try solve this quietly, than react loudly and lose our peace of mind. Staying with the club thick and thin, through both good and bad times is a duty of ours and one that we must not forget or fail to perform.

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