Tonight, Real Madrid host Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Six Real players are facing yellow cards for the second leg – a fact that Vincent Kompany is ignoring.
It “cannot be a tactic” to provoke yellow cards at the Estadio Bernabeu, said the Bayern coach on the fact that six Real Madrid players are facing yellow cards for the second leg in Munich next Wednesday.
For example, the two star strikers Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Junior would be suspended for the next caution against the Whites. However, Jude Bellingham, Dean Huijsen, Aurelien Tchouameni and Alvaro Carreras would also be ineligible to play at the Allianz Arena in the event of a yellow card.
The situation at FC Bayern is far more relaxed. Only Dayot Upamecano, who was cautioned in the 3-1 defeat at FC Arsenal and the 2-1 loss at PSV Eindhoven, and Konrad Laimer will have to watch out. The Austrian has already collected four yellow cards this Champions League season and has therefore already been sent off once. Both players did not play in the second leg of the round of 16 tie against Atalanta Bergamo (3:1) and watched the match against the Italians from the bench for 90 minutes.
In the Champions League, a one-match ban is imposed from the league phase onwards after three yellow cards that did not result in a sending-off. This is followed by a ban for every further odd-numbered caution (five, seven …). The cautions will only be canceled after the end of the quarter-final matches.
Bayern’s fond memories of Oliver
The referee for the match is Englishman Michael Oliver. Bayern have had good experiences with the 41-year-old so far, winning six of the seven international matches he has officiated, with FCB only having to settle for a 1-1 draw against RB Salzburg in the round of 16 of the 2021/22 Champions League. In these games, Oliver handed out 17 yellow cards to Bayern players, and in the 1-0 win at PSG in the round of 16 in 2022/23, he sent Benjamin Pavard off with a red card.
Real Madrid have had less contact with Oliver so far, having only played four games under the Englishman’s management. The last time was last November, when the Whites won 4:3 at Olympiakos Piraeus. Mbappé and Arda Güler were yellow-carded by Oliver in Greece.
