Chapter 1 The Latest Rules

The television broadcast repeatedly replayed Subotić's goal-line clearance from earlier, not just to show how amazing it was, but more importantly, to see if the ball had actually gone in.

In the England versus Germany match at the South Africa World Cup, there was a controversial goal-line incident. Lampard took a long shot from outside the box, and the ball hit the underside of the German crossbar, bounced down, and then back out.

The England players immediately signaled to the referee that the ball had gone in, but the referee remained unmoved, the game continued, and the goal was not counted.

However, footage from the camera inside the goal showed that the ball had clearly landed inside the goal line after hitting the underside of the crossbar.

The goal should have been valid, and it was an erroneous ruling by the refereeing team.

Although England ultimately lost to Germany without any suspense in that match, some people still felt resentful, believing that if Lampard's goal had been allowed, it was hard to say how the game would have developed. Maybe England's morale would have soared, and they would have won?

Moreover, Lampard's only goal in his World Cup career was erased just like that, making many of Lampard's fans feel very indignant.

After that World Cup, people in the football world began to debate whether to introduce some camera technology to help referees make rulings.

A technology similar to tennis's "Hawk-Eye" could accurately determine whether a ball was in or out of bounds, avoiding some controversial calls.

This technology was not new, and there were no technical difficulties.

But football had never adopted it. Until now, even relying on game footage as a basis for making rulings was not allowed, let alone directly installing any goal-line determination system.

FIFA, as the leading organization in world football, should theoretically lead the trend in technological development, but on the contrary, FIFA was very conservative in this regard, refusing all change.

FIFA was very opposed to goal-line technology.

Discussions about whether to introduce goal-line technology had actually started as early as 2005. During an English Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, a Tottenham Hotspur goal in the final minute was disallowed because the linesman and the referee did not see the ball cross the line.

This incident prompted FIFA to begin testing Adidas's goal-line technology system.

In simple terms, a chip would be embedded in the ball, and when the ball passed through sensors placed in the goal area, the chip would send a signal to the referee, so the referee would know if the ball had gone in.

But Blatter, as the president of FIFA, refused to adopt this system.

Before the South Africa World Cup, the FIFA Council voted by a margin of six to two to permanently abandon this technology.

As a result, they were slapped in the face at the South Africa World Cup...

Because of things like the England versus Germany incident, FIFA announced that they would restart discussions about using goal-line technology.

It was no wonder that FIFA's image under Blatter's leadership was not very good—how could the image be good when things like this kept happening?

Considering that UEFA leader Platini also opposed goal-line technology, after some discussion, the concept of goal-line referees was introduced to the football field as a compromise to this technology.

Starting with the 2010-2011 Champions League season and the 2012 European Cup qualifiers, additional goal-line referees were added. In each match, there would be a goal-line referee near each of the two goals. They were equipped with wireless headsets and could communicate with the main referee. The main responsibility of these two referees was to pay attention to the situation in both penalty areas, to provide reliability for penalty calls, and to try to minimize the controversy of penalty calls. At the same time, these two referees were also responsible for confirming whether a goal was scored.

They would closely watch the ball fly into the goal.

And when Subotić made his clearance just now, the goal-line referee behind the Dortmund goal did not make any indication, which meant that the ball had not actually entered the goal.

According to the latest rules, the entire ball must cross the line to be considered a goal. Even if only a tiny projection of the ball was on the line, it would not be considered a goal.

From the replays of cameras at multiple angles, although it was not as intuitive and clear as tennis's "Hawk-Eye system," it could still be seen that the ball had not entered the goal at all. If it was on the line, only a small part of it was on the line, which would never be counted as a goal.

Müller's attempt had the suspicion of muddying the waters.

Müller was also well aware of this, so after the referee made no indication, he did not protest further, but put his hands on his hips and kept shaking his head.

He was only a few centimeters away from being Bayern Munich's hero.

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Müller's shot did not go in, and the game entered the seventieth minute, leaving only twenty minutes for both sides.

This was a very sensitive time, not too much, not too little. Twenty minutes was definitely more than ten minutes, but compared to thirty minutes, it would make people feel a sense of urgency.

The more intense the game, the faster the time passed. By the time people came back to their senses, there might only be a few minutes left in the game.

The sense of urgency that time gave not only made both players fight harder in attack, but also made them more daring in defense, which inevitably led to some conflicts...

In the seventy-second minute, Ribéry and Schmelzer got into an argument, and both received a yellow card, with Rizzoli giving each a beating.

And until now, neither side had made any substitutions, obviously they were both satisfied with the performance of the starting players, and there was no need to make any substitutions.

In the seventy-third minute, Dortmund made a long pass from the backcourt, directly finding Lewandowski in the frontcourt. After Lewandowski stopped the ball, he turned and shot directly.

But as the ball left his foot, the referee's whistle sounded, and Neuer naturally didn't make any saves, watching the ball fly into the goal behind him.

A burst of cheers erupted from the stands where the Dortmund fans were gathered, but the cheers quickly disappeared. Judging from the referee's gestures, this was definitely not a goal.

Sure enough, Lewandowski did not celebrate either.

When he shot, the referee Rizzoli blew his whistle for a foul.

As for what the foul was, he knew it very well himself—he had handled the ball when he stopped it.

Slow-motion replays revealed this to everyone. It was supposed to be a chest trap, but the ball hit Lewandowski's arm, which he had raised to maintain his balance, undoubtedly a handball.

Afterwards, referee Rizzoli gave Lewandowski a verbal warning. Lewandowski's attitude was also very good, so there were no further penalties.

This made the Bayern Munich fans unhappy—they believed that Rizzoli should have given Lewandowski a yellow card. According to the rules, a deliberate handball must be given a yellow card, and they believed that Lewandowski's handball was deliberate.

A minute later, Bayern Munich launched an attack on the right wing. Lahm crossed, and Hummels cleared, but he mishit it, and the ball flew high, flying to the far post.

Thomas Müller got to the second point in the penalty area, but he no longer had a direct shot. He immediately turned around and passed the ball out. Alaba rushed up and shot furiously!

The ball flew straight to the far corner of the goal. Weidenfeller jumped and punched the ball out of the baseline.

This shot and save caused exclamations in the stands.

As for the easily startled commentators, it goes without saying...

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Next, both sides would have attacks and defenses, and it seemed that they both had a chance to break the deadlock again.

The game time passed minute by minute in this unrestrained back-and-forth attack, and as the end of the game approached, both teams stepped up their attacks.

But both Neuer and Weidenfeller maintained a very high level in the game, ensuring that their respective goals were not lost.

Even in injury time, both teams had not given up on trying to kill the other side at the last moment.

Of course, they were also very careful to prevent being killed by the other side...

Especially Bayern Munich, the thought of being killed by Zhou Yi in the final seconds of injury time in the league made their hearts break.

They didn't want the tragedy to repeat itself in the Champions League final...

So they were very closely marking Zhou Yi, even more closely than before. It was difficult for Zhou Yi to even receive the ball, let alone pass or shoot.

However, since Bayern Munich put a lot of energy into defense, their threat in attack was naturally not as great as before.

And both Klopp and Heynckes vaguely realized that it was unlikely that they would be able to end this game in ninety minutes.

So after entering injury time, both teams finally made substitutions.

First, Dortmund replaced two people in one breath. Şahin replaced Sven Bender, and Marco Wagner replaced Kuba.

This was to strengthen the attack.

Klopp did not intend to entangle with Bayern Munich until the end of the one hundred and twenty minute game, and then take penalties. Although he had prepared for penalties, he would try not to have a penalty shootout if he could avoid it. Who would want to entrust himself to a fate that was both fickle and loved to tease people?

Bayern Munich then made a substitution as well, but they only replaced one person.

They made a corresponding substitution in the center forward position, replacing Mandžukić with the fresh force Mario Gómez.

"Both teams are preparing for extra time..."

Marcel Reif said when he saw this.