Jonathan Tah decision leaves Enzo Maresca fuming, with the Chelsea manager of the opinion it should have been a red card.
Enzo Maresca fumes after Bayern defender Jonathan Tah avoids sending-off.
After Bayern Munich took advantage of Jonathan Tah’s avoidance of a red card and gave Chelsea a difficult start to life back in the Champions League, Enzo Maresca scolded the referees.
The Spanish referee, José Sánchez Martínez, simply booked Tah for a cynical challenge on João Pedro during the first half of Wednesday night’s match at the Allianz Arena, and Chelsea’s head coach did not hold back his ire. After taking João Pedro down in the build-up to Cole Palmer’s goal for Chelsea, who ultimately lost 3-1 to the Bundesliga champions to start the league phase, Maresca was adamant that the Bayern defender should have been sent off.
Maresca lashes out
“It should have been a red card,” Maresca said. “I always said it was a red card when there is no intention to go for the ball just when the intention is to kick another player. Why is it not a red card? The referee said it was not hard or aggressive enough. So to give you a red card, they need to see your blood or they need to see something. If the intention is to go there, it’s a red card. So for me there is not any doubt.”
After protesting and getting punished, Maresca became even more irate when Bayern substituted Tah at halftime. The Bayern manager, Vincent Kompany, acknowledged that the Germany center-back’s yellow card was the reason.
Chelsea fightback impresses Maresca
After missing out on the Champions League for two years, Chelsea at least found solace in a strong performance. But in the end, they paid for their errors. Harry Kane scored two goals, including one from the penalty spot, to ease Bayern to victory after Trevoh Chalobah scored an own goal and Malo Gusto and Moisés Caicedo made mistakes.
“I’m happy with the performance, because we knew how difficult it was to come here against this team,” Maresca said. “We knew that it was a very tough game but overall I think we competed very well. In the first 20 minutes, we didn’t concede nothing, we created two chances, then we conceded the goal and [it] changed the game.
“I think the players were already aware of the difficulties. You cannot commit mistakes in the way we have done, but I just said to the players, it’s a game that we can learn a lot and build something special from this defeat.”