Football
Mark Lovell, Bayern Munich blogger 8y

Bayern Munich's Mats Hummels: Franck Ribery incident 'questionable'

Bayern Munich defender Mats Hummels admitted teammate Franck Ribery's actions had been "questionable" after he raised his hands to an opponent's face during the 1-0 win at Hamburg on Saturday.

Ribery, 33, replaced Kingsley Coman shortly after the hour mark. Soon afterwards, he tweaked Hamburg midfielder Nicolai Muller's cheek as he ran past him in clear view of the referee, who immediately booked him.

In August, Borussia Dortmund were angered when Ribery escaped with a booking after twice striking Felix Passlack with his arm in a German Super Cup clash.

"It's always questionable when you raise your hands to the face," Hummels told reporters.

"If they are both friends, one might say he was only being nice -- but I don't know how well they know each other."

Muller, meanwhile, dismissed the incident, saying: "Such skirmishes are part and parcel of the game."

But former referee Thorsten Kinhofer, who earlier in the season labelled Ribery "a ticking time bomb," told Bild: "He is not learning his lesson."

Ribery made Bayern's late winning goal, going on a run to the byline before crossing for Joshua Kimmich to tap in at the back post and stretch Bayern's run to eight wins in a row in all competitions.

Skipper Philipp Lahm said: "Ribery is an unbelievable player with so much quality. He's always proved that."

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