At the final whistle, Marco Verratti took off his glove and shook hands with Mikaël Lesage, the referee of the match lost by Paris to Nantes (3-1).
He then wanted to start a discussion with him but did not have the opportunity.
A little later, he will deliver his wrath on TV then in the mixed zone.
Leonardo, the Parisian sports director, will do the same.
At the break, we saw Thilo Kehrer already very cheered up and calmed down by Marquinhos and Gueye.
Other Parisians have clearly shown their incomprehension of certain decisions.
Neymar or even Kylian Mbappé, annoyed as rarely.
🗨️ "We lost, it's deserved! But with us, there is the desire to whistle against (PSG)"
Leonardo very angry after #FCNPSG 🗣️
▶️ https://t.co/zI9DZImw6X pic.twitter. com/E3wrl7Lvuc
– Canal Football Club (@CanalFootClub) February 19, 2022
But what are the Parisians reproaching Mr. Lesage for?
To listen to Leonardo - and to see Mbappé's anger -, it is first of all the absence of a second yellow card for Dennis Appiah when the Nantes man mowed down the Parisian striker in the 58th minute when the score was 3- 1.
A red card could indeed have changed the end of the game.
“Afterwards, there are so many faults on our players, underlines Leonardo.
But he says:
No, no, it's Neymar, it's Mbappé, I'm not whistling!
It's Messi, I don't whistle, it's Paris Saint-Germain, I don't whistle!
»
"Afterwards, the referee doesn't even want to talk: it's me, I know everything..."
Leonardo gets carried away: “The feeling, it comes like that.
Maybe I'm wrong.
After, we lost, we accept the defeat.
We will learn from this.
There were a lot of mistakes, things we didn't do.
You have to know after a Champions League match, to behave in Ligue 1 in a certain way.
This, we will talk about.
But, there is a fact that today looked like poum poum poum: I'm shooting you!
»
Read alsoNantes-PSG (3-1): the notes of Parisian players
The sporting director did not like everything about his team.
"But it will be up to the coach and the players to discuss it," he said.
It's not me who will make a judgment at the technical level.
There are a lot of things, otherwise you don't lose 3-1, that's obvious.
If you're strong, you gotta get out of this.
»
But he quickly returns to the subject of his anger: “I am talking about episodes which, for me, were very clear but, if you do not agree, I respect.
It's my opinion.
And when there are several, you can start to think that it's something impossible... Afterwards, the referee, he doesn't even want to talk: it's me, I know everything... We ask for a little respect for that.
Because we feel a little embarrassed.
It's too direct.
»
Leonardo leaves after a pirouette: “We do one thing, he says to journalists, I say nothing more, you look at the images and you judge.
»
On the Nantes side, we did not dwell on the controversy
Like his sports director, Parisian coach Mauricio Pochettino also pointed the finger at arbitration during his speech at a press conference.
If he does not put the weight of the defeat on the shoulders of Mr. Lesage, he is not for all that tender with the latter: “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.
»
On the Nantes side, we did not dwell on this controversy.
Coach Antoine Kombouaré underlined the excellent copy made by his men, speaking of "surprise to see the team leading 3-0" at halftime.
Only midfielder Pedro Chirivella has expressed his feelings on the matter.
“Frankly, I don't think Paris was disadvantaged by the arbitration, but it's not for me to say, reacted the former Liverpool player.
Sometimes the referees make mistakes, but here I think the refereeing was good…”