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Speaking in the wake of Paris Saint-Germain’s defeat to Nantes yesterday, sporting director Leonardo lamented the referee’s decisions against his team as well as the players’ performance.
His words transcribed in L’Équipe, the visibly annoyed former midfielder claimed that the referee would not award certain fouls as they were against the team’s front three, or in PSG’s favour in general.
“Appiah did not receive a second yellow even though the penalty was awarded. A second yellow card is a red, it’s obvious. Then you have so many fouls on our players. But he says no, it’s Mbappé, it’s Neymar, I won’t blow the whistle! It’s Messi, I won’t blow the whistle, it’s Paris Saint-Germain, I won’t blow the whistle!”
“That’s where the feeling comes from. Maybe I am getting it wrong. We lost, I accept the defeat. We’ll learn from it. There were a lot of mistakes, things that we didn’t do well. We have to know how to behave in Ligue 1 in a certain way following a Champions League match. We’re going to talk about that. But with the referee, we had the impression today that it was like, “bang, bang, bang, I’m shooting you”.”
“[…] Every match is different. It was an important game against Nantes, we know that. But this thing was created where everything is against us. Everything went against us today and I am speaking about refereing moments which were clear.”
