BERLIN: Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos criticized match officials for their controversial offside call which benefited his team against Bayern Munich during the Champions League semifinals.
Bayern defender Matthijs de Ligt thought he’d equalized to send last week’s game to extra time when he fired the ball into Madrid’s net in the 13th minute of stoppage time.
But referee Szymon Marciniak had already blown his whistle after his assistant quickly raised his flag for a possible offside infringement.
Too quickly, Kroos said Wednesday.
“It’s bad handling. You have to let play continue,” the Germany player said in a podcast he runs with his brother Felix. “I think the mistake is primarily the linesman’s.”
Bayern were trailing 2-1 and needed a goal to force extra time to keep alive their hopes of reaching the final. UEFA tells match officials not to stop play immediately for tight offside calls. And TV replays showed it was a very close call.
“If he raises the flag now, the referee assumes that his linesman sees it exactly that way and trusts him that it was probably three meters offside,” said Kroos, who said he understood Bayern’s frustrations.
“The anger is justified because you just have to play the situation to the end, 100 percent.”
Kroos said he was unsure if Madrid defenders would have stopped de Ligt’s shot had there not been an intervention from the referee.
“I don’t know if there was a collective switching off because you could hear the whistle very early,” Kroos said. “You could tell the tension dropped among everyone who wanted to defend this goal.”
Madrid won the second leg 2-1 to reach the final in London on June 1.
Borussia Dortmund will try to stop the Spanish giant from claiming its 15th European title.

NEW YORK: Jalen Brunson was back to his best on Tuesday as the New York Knicks dominated the Indiana Pacers 121-91 to take a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal Game 5.

A win on Friday night in Indianapolis will see the Knicks advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 24 years.

After losing Game 4 by 32 points, it was an emphatic response from the Knicks, with Brunson piling up 44 points with seven assists and four rebounds.

“He’s willing to share everything with his teammates, and to me, that is the best part of him,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.

“His play is spectacular, but who he is as a teammate, as a leader, it makes us that. Big shot after big shot.”

The Knicks destroyed Indiana on the boards, with Isaiah Hartenstein leading the way with 17 rebounds (12 offensive) while Josh Hart had 11 rebounds (nine defensive).

Brunson’s impact had been limited in the past two games in the series, with concerns that his heavy workload and a foot injury may have slowed him down.

But there were no signs of fatigue as he reached the 40 mark for the fifth time this post-season.

Brunson, who had only 18 points in Sunday’s loss, shot 18 for 35 and put up 28 points in the first half — a playoff record for the Knicks.

It was his seven straight points, including a three-pointer to open up a 20-point lead at 106-86, that made sure of the victory.

“I just love that there is never any excuse-making from him. He’s never talking about injuries,” said Thibodeau.

“A lot of times when you hear people talking about their injuries, a lot of it is excuse-making and you never get that from him.”

The Pacers got off to a strong start and led 25-20 before the Knicks put together an 11-0 run to end the first quarter up 38-32. By halftime, it was 69-54 and New York were in no mood to let the lead slip.

Thibodeau said he expected the response to the blowout defeat from his team.

“They’ve shown that all year, that’s who they are. We still need one more win, so we can’t be too excited about it,” he said.

Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 22 points.

In the West, the Denver Nuggets made it three straight wins in their semifinal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, with Nikola Jokic leading the defending champions with 40 points.

Having trailed 2-0 in the series, Denver are now just one win away from a return to the Western Conference finals.

Jokic was presented with his Most Valuable Player of the year award — the third of his career — before the game, then quickly provided another reminder of his value.

Denver led 50-44 at halftime, with Jokic scoring 19 of their points. Then, after the Wolves went on an 11-3 run early in the third quarter, Jokic scored another 16 to extend the Nuggets’ lead to 88-74.

Denver were able to keep Anthony Edwards quiet, with the Timberwolves star limited to 18 points on 5-of-15 shooting.

The 22-year-old had scored 44 points in Sunday’s Game 4 loss.

But after the shock of losing the opening two games of the series, Jokic knows a tough test awaits on Thursday in Minnesota.

“Our back is still against the wall and we don’t want to quit. We are still desperate, and we still want to win, and we are going to Minnesota to get one,” he said.

Denver head coach Michael Malone was pleased with the way his team dealt with the threat from Edwards.

“We knew we had to do something different with Anthony Edwards, he is just a one-man wrecking crew,” said Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.

“We trapped him, we double-teamed him, flew around behind it, and that takes a lot of effort and our guys committed to it and that was a big part of the win,” he said.