Piers Morgan has taken aim at 'embarrassing' Thomas Tuchel after the German boss slammed the actions of the referee in Chelsea's Champions League exit.
Chelsea were close to completing a sensational comeback to knock Real Madrid out in the quarter-finals but came up agonisingly short at the Bernabeu. The Blues had a 4-3 aggregate advantage after taking a stunning 3-0 lead in Madrid, but succumbed to goals from Real duo Rodrygo and Karim Benzema as their hopes of defending their European crown were dashed.
Tuchel was unhappy with Polish referee Szymon Marciniak, not only for his vital in-game decisions but also an apparent lack of sensitivity after he shared a joke with opposing boss Carlo Ancelotti at full-time. And Arsenal fan Morgan, tweeting to his 7.9million followers, took aim at the Chelsea coach: "Embarrassing by Tuchel," Morgan tweeted. "They were probably laughing at how badly Chelsea choked after having the game in the bag."
“I’m disappointed that the referee had a good time with my colleague, Carlo Ancelotti,” Tuchel said. “I know Carlo is a gentleman and a nice guy but when I wanted to go and say thank you I see him smiling and laughing loudly with the opponent coach.
“I think this is the very, very worst time to do this, after 126 minutes with one team giving their heart and desire, fighting to the very last drop. Afterwards you go as a coach and see the referee laughing and smiling with the other coach. I think it’s very, very bad timing.”
Chelsea had the Champions League semi-finals in their grasp after goals from Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger and Timo Werner completed the turnaround. And after missing a handful of chances before Real pounced, Morgan joked that the referee was in fact laughing at the Blues for 'choking' on the big occasion.
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Tuchel accepted that he might risk the wrath of UEFA for his comments on the referee but questioned the "courage" of the officials at the Bernabeu. Marcos Alonso had a goal controversially chalked off for handball by VAR without the referee Simon Marciniak checking the pitchside monitor.
“Not only today, it is like this for some time, and now maybe I get problems," Tuchel added when asked about the Alonso VAR call. "If you play against Real Madrid you can maybe not expect everybody has the courage. I felt little decisions went against us also in the first-leg and today as well.
“I did not see the goal but I told him I’m super disappointed he didn’t go to check it himself. You should stay the boss and not give decisions like this to somebody in a chair [the VAR] and isolated from the atmosphere."
