Thigh, arm, penalty against Düsseldorf: "Such decisions are ridiculous"

Can't understand some decisions and procedures: Düsseldorf board member Klaus Allofs. picture alliance / Maximilian Koch

Fortuna coach Daniel Thioune and Düsseldorf's sporting director Klaus Allofs made one thing clear in their statements to Sky : The final clear 1:5 defeat after their own 1:0 lead at newly promoted Arminia Bielefeld was also due to their own mistakes.

"You don't have to lose a football match because of three set pieces when you're outnumbered," but you could also play better here and "keep a game even for a long time." A game, incidentally, that F95 dominated initially and celebrated a deserved 1-0 lead thanks to new signing Cedric Itten (Young Boys Bern). "The first 40 minutes were okay, especially because the pitch is on fire here (in Bielefeld; editor's note ) and the conditions are difficult," Thioune said in his analysis. "So I'm taking a lot of positives from this, but we need to talk about a few things."

For example, the yellow-red card against Tim Oberdorf , who was shown a yellow-red card within a few minutes and ultimately for a tactical challenge on Joel Grodowski in the 44th minute. For example, the 45th minute, when Noah Joel Sarenren Bazee made it 1-1 for the home side almost immediately after Bielefeld's sending off. And also in the 53rd minute, when Düsseldorf's Sotiris Alexandropoulos threw himself into a long-range shot, got the ball on his thigh and from there onto his upwardly angled arm - Julian Kania then converted safely to give Arminia a 2-1 lead (54th minute). The game had turned around and the guests from the Rhineland were left serving.

Manager Allofs, however, also pointed to referee Patrick Alt , whose penalty call, in his view, was incorrect: "He gets hit in the hip (or thigh; editor's note ) - and then it goes for his arm. Decisions like that are ridiculous." For the 68-year-old, it was clearly not a penalty. Above all, he once again failed to understand how ambiguous the rules continue to be in this area – "from week to week," decisions are made one way or the other in such incidents. That cannot and should not be allowed.

"We're tinkering with the rules until we've lost all the screws, all the way to ten minutes of stoppage time," Allofs said, referring to the seemingly bizarre "extra time" extending into the 100th minute, which even Bielefeld coach Mitch Kniat couldn't understand. "I don't think anyone understood that," he explained. "I asked the referee – and he told me they wanted a uniform solution. I then said that I'd watched the first, second, and third divisions. But ten minutes of stoppage time? I have no idea; maybe it will be explained to me."

All of this "simply hurts" Düsseldorf's sporting director Allofs – all of it, combined with the circumstances surrounding the yellow card and red card, as well as the subsequent 1-1 draw before halftime. "To end up on the losing track like that, certainly also due to our own mistakes," was bitter. "We have to divide the game up – into phases with eleven men and phases with ten. In this league, every mistake is punished; you simply have to make the right decisions. And we didn't do that in the second 45 minutes. So, in the end, it was a real thrashing. That's unfortunate."

However, in his view, the referee didn't do everything right either: "When you lose so heavily in the end, you shouldn't really talk about the referee. But what was called today was truly catastrophic."