Paris Saint-Germain dominated LOSC (1-3) on the Pierre Mauroy pitch this Sunday evening, during the 3rd day. A victory pocketed by Luis Enrique’s troops thanks to goals from Vitinha, Bradley Barcola and Randal Kolo Muani. But the spotlights of the post-match were mainly focused on the Lille side. Authors of a solid 2nd half, the Lille players thought they had pulled off a nice coup but two decisions came to put sticks in the streets: a penalty not whistled on Tiago Santos (42nd) but especially a goal disallowed for offside (81st). The strong men of LOSC did not hesitate to come back to these facts of the game. Before Olivier Létang’s rant, it was Bruno Génésio, calmer than his president, who criticized the refereeing.
“It’s tough and very very contentious. I just watched the action again. When Benji (André) heads the ball, you might think that Tiago is offside, but Thomas Meunier touches the ball again afterwards. It’s no longer offside after Meunier touches the ball. He deflects the ball and at that point it’s no longer offside. We had a good start to the match where we played on an equal footing until the penalty. We had a chance to score before them. (…) I can’t say it’s good, when you lose it’s never good but I want to congratulate my players. Tonight there’s the defeat, but after the six matches we’ve played, we have to take our hats off to them“, he declared to our colleagues at DAZN. And a few minutes later, in the tunnels of the Pierre Mauroy stadium, Olivier Létang insisted on coming to speak to journalists to get his scathing message across.
Létang shoots down the refereeing!
In the 81st minute, a few seconds after Edon Zhegrova reduced the score, LOSC thought they had equalised thanks to Tiago Santos but the Portuguese was flagged offside by a hair: “This is the highlight of the match. The championship is already truncated. We put millions on the table to make the right decisions. Everyone looked after the fact, we all looked, I even went to see Mr. Bastien who had nothing to do with it. He confirmed to me that the fact that Thomas Meunier touched the ball put Tiago Santos back into play. This is the big frustration of the evening to say the least because we are at 2-2 at that point in the match, there are 8 minutes left, we are pushing. In the end, we don’t know what would have happened. I am very angry, I am very very very angry. Like others, we put millions of euros on the table and tomorrow, we will say that Paris Saint-Germain won when we were at 2-2 with eight minutes to go“, declared Olivier Létang in the mixed zone. And the VAR truck made a mistake during its discussion with Mr. Benoît Bastien.
Indeed, the VAR truck sent the wrong images to the central referee. Tiago Santos was indeed offside when Benjamin André headed the ball. However, Thomas Meunier, who was not offside, touched the ball again before it went to Santos. At that moment, the Portuguese was no longer offside: “I don’t know if it’s a technology problem. There are people who are responsible for that. There is always the debate about whether we continue or not. You realize that tonight Paris Saint-Germain has 9 points when it should have had 7, maybe even less if we scored a 3rd goal because we were on a positive dynamic and finally, we are all frustrated tonight. When we see clearly, sharply and precisely that there is no offside, yes I am furious. Frankly, I don’t even want to talk about the match. We made mistakes, we played against a good team but the central element today is that with 8 minutes to go, it should be 2-2“, continued Olivier Létang. But the monologue was far from over and the Lille president continued to castigate the VAR truck.
The goal should therefore have been awarded. Mr. Benoît Bastien even confirmed this to Olivier Létang after the match. The VAR truck should have placed the indicator at the moment of Meunier’s pass and not at the moment of Benjamin André’s header. A plot twist that changed the outcome of the match: “We were pushing, we were on a good dynamic. When I say that the championship is truncated, today the Ligue 1 championship, the final result, it is truncated while we have all the technological tools to make the right decisions but what are those who are in charge of this doing? It’s not possible. When we see on the screen live, Benjamin André’s head and Tiago Santos’ foot is offside by one foot, when that is not the subject at all, let’s be professional. Professional football league. Professional competition. In fact, there is no ethics. We have the images to make decisions and people do not make them“, concluded the former leader of Rennes and Paris. The message has been received and the LFP must now react.
