Another awful English referee appointed to Bayern Munich’s 1st leg vs Villarreal

Bad news guys — UEFA have officially announced the referee for Bayern Munich’s upcoming Champions League quarter-final first leg vs Villarreal, and ... he’s English. It’s Anthony Taylor, whom Bayern fans will remember from the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla in 2020. He was absolutely atrocious in that game, ruling out a clear goal for Robert Lewandowski because of some nonexistent foul committed by Leroy Sane (or was it the other way around?). He allowed Sevilla to get away with whatever fouls they liked, and was generally incompetent for the entire 120 minutes.

You can’t even blame UEFA this time. There are so many Premier League teams in the quarters this year, the Bayern game was bound to be saddled with an English ref. The problem is that these guys are awful by any logical standard. When Michael Oliver is rated as a good referee by Premier League watchers, you know something is terribly wrong.

Anthony Taylor is allegedly not as bad as some of the worst, but by European standards that still makes him utterly diabolical. And given how Spanish teams like to play the referee whenever they face Bayern Munich, this Wednesday’s game looks like it’s going to be a painful affair.

Let’s just hope that the players are mentally prepared for it, and Lucas Hernandez will need to be especially careful with his employment of the dark arts. Lucas is the only player on the team at risk of missing the next leg with a yellow card suspension, but others might be at risk of missing a potential semi if they get carded in this leg and the next (if Bayern go through). Obviously, we don’t need a repeat of the 2019 tie vs Liverpool, where Thomas Muller and Joshua Kimmich were both suspended for the second leg.

A humble request to UEFA: Please stop giving us English refs!

Looking for an actual in-depth preview of the game vs Villarreal? Well why not check out our preview podcast! We talk about the lineups, the tactics of both coaches, what could (or should) change in the setup, and a lot more! Listen to it below or at this link.

As always, thanks for listening and we appreciate all the support!