Mainz fume at VAR over Schick handball before Leverkusen's third goal in 4-3 win
Mainz lost 4-3 to Leverkusen and are angry about the build-up to Quansah's goal: the ball struck Schick's hand and VAR did not intervene.
Symbolic image · Photo: Werner100359 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Mainz 05 lost their Bundesliga match against Bayer Leverkusen 4-3 on Saturday (2-2 at half-time). Andrich, Schick, Quansah and Diaby scored for Leverkusen; Caci scored twice and Hollerbach added a stoppage-time goal for Mainz. The dispute centres on Jarell Quansah's goal in the 55th minute to make it 3-2.
Beforehand the ball had bounced off Patrik Schick's stomach onto his hand as he controlled it and on to Quansah, who first failed to score and then headed in the rebound. The video assistant did not intervene. Mainz defender Stefan Posch said afterwards: "I don't know what the video referee does for a living, but today he apparently wasn't looking."
Sporting director Niko Bungert called the situation "very bitter", saying it "feels unfair". He said he had been told it would only have been handball if the scorer himself had handled the ball. Coach Urs Fischer protested on the touchline but held back after the game: "I shouldn't talk about the referee today."