Borussia Dortmund chief executive officer Hans-Joachim Watzke has accused referee Danny Makkelie of arrogance over his penalty call in the club's Champions League exit to Chelsea.
The Bundesliga side slipped out of Europe after failing to build on their 1-0 first-leg advantage at Stamford Bridge, with a 2-0 defeat on the night meaning a 2-1 aggregate loss to their Premier League hosts.
Chelsea's ultimate winner came from a Kai Havertz penalty, but only when Makkelie allowed the forward to retake it due to encroachment after he missed his first attempt.
Watzke however felt the Dutch referee was guilty of arrogant behaviour in his decision-making, and suggested he was too easily swayed from his gut decisions by a boisterous home atmosphere.
"You always had the bad feeling that he wanted to be the most important man on the pitch," he told SID.
"His gestures, his facial expressions, he really liked [to perform to the crowd].
"Instinct was a foreign word to him. We lost control of the game too early, and congratulations to Chelsea. They deserve to go through.
"But the decision to retake the penalty was very controversial and the original call itself was a 50-50 decision. There's no question about that at all."
Chelsea were originally awarded the penalty after VAR intervened over a handball offence from Dortmund defender Marius Wolf.
Havertz hit the right post with his first attempt, but Makkelie allowed him to retake it after replays showed players from both teams encroached into the box.
Watzke was far from the only Dortmund figure to express their discontent with the decision, with Jude Bellingham also voicing his frustration after the game.
Dortmund paying the price for woeful away form – Sahin
Nuri Sahin made no excuses after another dismal away performance saw Borussia Dortmund slip to a 3-1 loss at Mainz.
Dortmund saw Emre Can sent off as they fell to a fourth straight away defeat in the Bundesliga.
Saturday's loss leaves them in seventh place, 10 points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
"A difficult away game for us. Once we got that red card it got really hard," said Sahin, whose team have become the second Bundesliga side this century to have zero wins in their first five away games and five wins from their first five home games (after Borussia Monchengladbach in 2013-14).
"We have too few points on the road though I have to analyse today's defeat a bit differently than the other defeats because of the red card.
"With a few more points we would be somewhere else in the table. But for us we just are getting too few points."
Mainz picked up what was their first home win of the season in the Bundesliga, as they made their numerical advantage count following Emre Can's 27th-minute dismissal following a rash tackle.
"Emre can't go into this challenge like that," Sahin said.
"He wins the first ball and then in the second effort he should stay up."
Mainz 3-1 Borussia Dortmund: 10-man visitors slump to another away defeat
Borussia Dortmund slumped to a fourth consecutive away defeat on Saturday, losing 3-1 to Mainz after Emre Can's first-half sending-off.
Dortmund, who had a midweek confidence boost with a 1-0 home win over Sturm Graz in the Champions League, struggled against the hosts and were left with 10 men in the 27th minute when their captain launched a reckless studs-up challenge on Lee Jae-Sung and received a straight red card.
Things got even worse when the South Korean rose to nod a deft finish past Alexander Meyer to give Mainz the lead in the 36th minute.
However, Lee then brought down Serhou Guirassy in the box just four minutes later, with the striker restoring parity from 12 yards.
Dortmund could not hold on until half-time though, as their defence was again caught out when Jonathan Burkardt turned in a cutback in first-half stoppage time.
After the break, Mainz picked up where they had left off, bagging a third goal through Paul Nebel, who coolly slid in from the edge of the six-yard box in the 54th minute.
Dortmund, who have lost four of their five away league games this season and drawn the other, are on 16 points in seventh spot. Mainz are three points behind in 10th.
Data Debrief: Away day woes
Dortmund have won just one of their away games in all competitions this season - a 3-0 victory over Club Brugge in the Champions League - but there does not seem to be an end in sight to their troubles.
It is the first time that Dortmund have lost six competitive away games on the bounce since 2006-07, but Nuri Sahin's bigger worry will be the fact that they only attempted two shots, with their penalty the only effort on target.
Meanwhile, Mainz have ended a three-match winless run in the Bundesliga, extending their impressive recent record against Dortmund in the process, as they are unbeaten in four games against the Black and Yellow (W2 D2).
Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane hands visitors bragging rights
Sadio Mane's first-half strike ensured Al-Nassr maintained their unbeaten start to the Saudi Pro League season with a 1-0 win over rivals Al-Riyadh.
He smartly finished from close range in the 41st minute, with his goal enough to seal the three points and move Al-Nassr up to third in the table.
Al-Nassr's threat grew as the first half went on, with Milan Borjan making a fine double stop to deny Ronaldo and Talisca once again before Mohamed Simakan struck the post on the rebound.
Mane would eventually break the deadlock in the 41st minute though, darting in front of his marker to meet Abdulrahman Ghareeb's low cross and rifle it into the roof of the net.
The Senegalese striker arguably should have doubled his tally before the break, but was denied by Borjan's stretching save when one-on-one with the Canadian.
Talisca should have wrapped up the points in the final three minutes, but he blazed over an empty net from close range, before having a late goal disallowed for offside.
Data Debrief: Derby delight for Al-Nassr
After drawing their last two matches, this win was a welcome result for Al-Nassr as they racked up their sixth victory of the season to close the gap at the top of the table to six points.
It is just the second time Al-Nassr have avoided defeat in their first 10 matches of a Pro League campaign, last doing so in 2013-14, when they won the league title.
They are now unbeaten in their last seven Pro League derbies (W4 D3), their longest such streak since a run of nine between 2018 and 2020.
This is the first time in eight such games that they have kept a clean sheet though, and limited their opponents to just five shots throughout.
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