Post-Match Report
Groß: "For me it's not a penalty, clearly not in fact"
There were three controversial penalty box incidents. And referee Tobias Stieler had waved play on and decided the situations in Borussia Dortmund's favour on three occasions: the unintentional contact on Joe Scally by Ramy Bensebaini in the 13th minute, the shot against Serhou Guirassy's hand from extremely close range shortly afterwards and the challenge between Pascal Groß and Tim Kleindienst in the 68th minute of the match. The Gladbach player went down on the left corner of the six-yard box following a Plea header that went well wide of goal.
"You can of course speak about a penalty, but I think that the VAR should not intervene," said Nuri Sahin after the final whistle, before adding an explanation: "It definitely wasn't a clearly wrong decision. And for me personally it was not a penalty either." The VAR is only allowed to intervene in the event of a clearly wrong decision by the referee.
"For me it's not a penalty, clearly not in fact, and certainly not one where a video referee is allowed to intervene," explained Pascal Groß. "It was not an incorrect decision. And if you look at his (editor's note: Tim Kleindienst) position in the challenge, he is using both hands, me too, I'm not pulling his shirt, we're pushing against each other, never a penalty for me." Nico Schlotterbeck had exactly the same view. "That's not a penalty! Pascal is only watching the ball. He pulls, Tim pulls too. No offence to the referee, but for me as a defender that wasn't much. You have very, very many of these challenges at corner-kicks." (br)