Denmark’s Hjulmand attacks ‘ridiculous handball rules’ after defeat by Germany

The Denmark manager, Kasper Hjulmand, took aim at football’s “ridiculous” handball rules after they were beaten 2-0 by Germany in a controversial, storm-ravaged last-16 tie.

Denmark had been well in the game against Germany and thought they had taken the lead when Joachim Andersen converted three minutes after half-time. But the goal was disallowed by VAR for a fractional offside against Thomas Delaney and, almost immediately afterwards, Andersen was penalised for a harsh handball picked up by the video officials. They could not find a way back after Kai Havertz scored the penalty, Jamal Musiala confirming Germany’s progress.

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Hjulmand, who made a point of congratulating Germany and was entirely reasonable in his tone, took the decisions one by one. “I have the photo here, it was one centimetre,” he said of the offside call. “In terms of statistics and date it doesn’t make sense. This is not how we are supposed to be using VAR. It’s one centimetre.”

It was the decision to penalise Andersen, using pedantic and confusing laws regarding handball contact, that energised Hjulmand most. “I’m so tired of the ridiculous handball rules,” he said. “We cannot require our defenders to run with arms like this [flat to their side], it’s not natural. Joachim is running normally, it’s a normal situation. He jumped up and was hit by one metre. I rarely talk about decisions but it was very decisive in our game.

“It’s frustrating for our team. Being 1-0 in front would have changed everything. In my opinion this is not how football is meant to be.”

Hjulmand emphasised that he was not against VAR in principle but questioned its application. “In my opinion when a decision is good it should be visible from the moon,” he said. “It shouldn’t depend on a few centimetres.”

The game was delayed in the first half by an electric storm that saw the sides leave the field for 25 minutes. Hjulmand was head coach at Nordsjælland in 2009 when a player, Jonathan Richter, was hit by lightning during a reserve match. Richter had the lower part of his left leg amputated after being put in an induced coma.

“I was not afraid, I was looking out for the security of the players,” he said of his response to the atrocious conditions. “I was involved in a match where the lightning hit one of our players. [This time] the lightning was straight over us. It was the right thing [to take the players off].”

The Germany manager, Julian Nagelsmann, described himself as “a friend of VAR” and accused the referee, Michael Oliver, of being “petty” for disallowing an early goal by Nico Schlotterbeck. He was happier to focus on his side’s victory. “We fought well against adversity, the team’s resilience was strong,” he said. “Hopefully the team are getting rid of the old memory stick and realise how good they actually are.”