Salzburg coach Pipain Leenders criticized the main referee Mykola Balakin, who officiated the Austrian team’s Champions League match against Bayer.
At the beginning of the match, Balakin initially awarded a penalty against Salzburg but later went to watch the video replay of the moment. After a lengthy discussion with his colleagues, the Ukrainian referee still upheld his decision.
"I don’t understand why he went to review the episode and then still awarded the penalty. I can’t believe this. But this isn’t the reason we lost. We lost anyway. Bayer was unstoppable when they gained momentum. I understood that we needed to hold out for the first 15 minutes, but we didn’t do that," — quotes Leenders LAOLA1.at