Bayern Munich could face punishment from German football authorities after playing part of their Bundesliga match against Freiburg with 12 men on Saturday.
The Bavarians were a man up for around nine seconds late in the game, as they ran out 4-1 winners to stay comfortably top of the table.
But Saturday's victory has quickly become shrouded in controversy after a mix-up with their substitutes. In the 85th minute, manager Julian Nagelsmann sent on Niklas Sule and Marcel Sabitzer to see out the game.
But instead of two players coming off in their place, only Corentin Tolisso did, with Kingsley Coman mistakenly remaining on the pitch. That was to the almost immediate dismay of the opposition, who alerted the referee to stop the match seconds after play had resumed at the Europa-Park Stadion.
"We drew the referee's attention to the fact that Bayern had eleven outfield players on the pitch," Freiburg director Jochen Saier told Sky. "That was bizarre, I haven’t seen that before."
His club would, however, need to lodge a formal complaint for there to be repercussions for Bayern, who currently sit nine points clear of second-place Borussia Dortmund.
Referee Christian Dingert noted the bizarre incident in his report and the official stated: "Now the DFB (the German Football Association) must decide." Nagelsmann attempted to explain the predicament and insisted that the nine seconds in which his team had an advantage were insignificant to the final outcome.
"There was the bizarre situation," the 34-year-old coaching prodigy added. "The fourth official showed the wrong number and Kingsley Coman didn’t know he had to go off. Nothing decisive happened." German newspaper Sport Bild, via Marca, have suggested that the win could be deducted from the Bavarians' tally, with a possible further points deduction.
As for the game itself, Bayern midfielder Leon Goretzka marked his comeback from a four-month injury lay-off by scoring the opening goal. The Germany international headed in from Joshua Kimmich's free-kick just before the hour mark. But five minutes later, it was 1-1, as home substitute Nils Petersen levelled within seconds of entering the fray.
Serge Gnabry, another substitute, restarted the visitors' lead before Coman and Sabitzer sealed the victory late on. "They're an awkward team to play against," Bavarian star Thomas Muller admitted to Bundesliga media. "They have players who play for the national team.
"This is the first time in their new stadium [for us], the atmosphere was super. It was really great fun, also on the pitch and we definitely deserved to win in the second half." Super sub Peterson went on to say: "I'm delighted for me personally even though there's a lot of disappointment."
