Martin Keown has slammed Thomas Tuchel for throwing referee Glenn Nyberg under the bus following Bayern Munich's 2-2 draw with Arsenal in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash.
Tuchel was incensed when Bayern were not awarded a penalty when Gabriel inexplicably handled the ball after receiving a pass from David Raya. Speaking after the game, Tuchel claimed that Nyberg said he decided not to penalise Gabriel as he had simply made a "kid's mistake".
And although former Arsenal captain Keown suggested Nyberg was "out of his depth" refereeing such a big game, he felt Tuchel should not have gone public with the reasons why he did not award Bayern a penalty.
"He's saying OK it's a kiddies mistake maybe there was another one later in the game," Keown said. "He's thrown the referee under a bus a little bit there. He's gone to him and said he's made a genuine mistake and I'm not sure the referee was expecting that to be made public.
"You can't defend the indefensible and the referee is maybe out of his depth because we thought he had a decent game but there's key moments where both teams can look at."
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Tuchel was not the only one left fuming by Nyberg's explanation, with Bayern's sporting director Max Eberl and star players Joshua Kimmich and Thomas Muller echoing their manager's comments.
"The referee blows his whistle, the goalkeeper passes the ball to the defender, who takes it with his hand, that's a penalty," Eberl said. "The referee said I can't give such a penalty in the quarter-finals.
Arsenal legend Martin Keown accused Tuchel of throwing Nyberg under the bus (Allstar via Getty Images)"Excuse me. It's not my fault, it's not our fault." Kimmich also insisted Bayern had been denied a "clear penalty", adding: "I've never seen something like that before. Ref said 'kid's mistake'. It's not, it's a clear penalty."
Muller, meanwhile, added: "The ref saw what happened clearly but felt it was too stupid a mistake, too small to give a pen. I can understand that in terms of the game but it's not down to him to decide that."
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