The resentment and the anger. The defeat conceded by PSG on the lawn of Nantes (3-1) on Saturday evening was not to the taste of all Parisians. None, of course, shied away from their responsibilities in the analysis of this third setback of the season in all competitions. But on the way back to the locker room, midfielder Marco Verratti first, then sporting director Leonardo were not kind to Mr. Lesage, the match’s referee, when debriefing the match at the Canal + offset microphone.
The Italian, rather objective in his analysis of the failure, first recognized the shortcomings that his team encountered during this 25th day and praised the performance of the Nantes goalkeeper, Alban Lafont. Then he let go against the refereeing. And more particularly Mr. Lesage, whom Mbappé had already targeted in a virulent way on January 16 during PSG-Brest.
“If you allow me, I would like to say one thing, attacked “Little Owl”. How is it possible that we take ten yellow cards (6 in fact) and we can’t talk to the referee? We can not do anything. Sometimes we can, but here we couldn’t at all. It’s the only game and the only referee in the world with whom we couldn’t do it. There is a penalty and he (Appiah) takes yellow when it was red… The referees have to take their responsibilities. There, we got pissed off (sic) by the referees! »
“We can lose, but…”
Leonardo, the sports director, who succeeded his midfielder at the microphone of the encrypted channel, was more calm. But he also targeted arbitration. “I will try to stay calm, he first attacked. It’s not about losing, you can lose! Nantes deserved to win. »
If he recognizes “that the match was difficult for PSG”, Leo also declared that “Paris was the team to beat, and even a little more”. “The referee knows that, he continued, referring to Mr. Lesage. I don’t want to judge, it’s a person. (…) At 2-0, the match was no longer under control. Afterwards you risk having players out for three months, like Neymar, Wijnaldum… The penalty is called after four minutes in added time. I don’t want to cry, cry, cry. We lost and it’s deserved. But against us, there is this desire (of the referees) to say I whistle against you. »
An analysis reinforced, according to him, by the management of the impressive tackle of Nicolas Pallois on Mbappé or the decision to return to the red put in Appiah to transform it into yellow. “Honestly, the fault on Kylian… he did not even whistle the fault, regretted Leonardo. Red for Appiah is not red. It’s Appiah who causes the penalty then, it must be a second yellow, but nothing! There, we lost control. But compared to the management of the match, I have the feeling that it is compared to our club, it is like that. »
Even Mauricio Pochettino put a little layer on it at a press conference. “You have to separate things,” explained the coach. It is not because of the referee that we lose the match, but I note that the criteria were not the same for the two teams. That’s why I can understand the nervousness of my players. It would be necessary to review the images to clearly observe that the refereeing decisions were not taken on an equal footing on both sides. Again, I’m not saying that’s why we lost the match, but it could have had an impact. »