An expected clash of Enlightenment! This Sunday, OL hosted PSG at the end of the 12th day of Ligue 1. A tense match between two teams who had major accounting issues in the standings with Gones wanting to stay in contact with the leaders when the Parisians had to recover the throne of leader. Ultimately, this shock kept all its promises. In a remarkable atmosphere, Lyonnais and Parisians went blow for blow. However, it was the Parisians who dealt the final blow to their opponents. On a final corner, Joao Neves, from the height of his 74 meter height, rose higher than everyone to offer a precious success to Luis Enrique’s flock (2-3).
Maciel came back up
For their part, OL have reason to be frustrated. Shy at the start of the match and fearful at the end of the match, Tanner Tessmann’s teammates did more than compete with the Ile-de-France residents in this match. Superior during the last quarter of an hour and often having the opportunity to score this third goal, Paulo Fonseca’s men finally collapsed at the worst moment. A terrible outcome which had the gift of irritating the Lyon locker room. Aware of having missed out on a prestigious success, Lyon rehashed what did not work so well during this meeting. And among their challenges, arbitration was made a priority complaint. Jorge Maciel, Paulo Fonseca’s deputy who was very angry from the final whistle, was the first to draw on League 1+.
“Doing refereeing analyzes every weekend and in all stadiums in the country is going to be difficult. It’s up to us to do the work with our team and we are very proud of the work we have done. I think there are 59,000 people at the stadium, there are only four who didn’t watch the fouls that we analyzed. We don’t even have to watch the replays. When it happens one way, we don’t understand. When it happens in the arrogance of not even having the opportunity to discuss, we don’t understand. We see Nico (Tagliafico), he is sent off. But how many faults did Afonso (Moreira) suffer? They didn’t take boxes. I think that up front, they are the best team in Europe. I think they don’t need to play with 16, because I count the VAR too, against a team which played on Thursday, which prepared the match very well and which played a good match. We are proud and I think the stadium can be proud of the show.”
Tolisso is fed up
Like him, Corentin Tolisso, who did not want to say everything he had in his heart to avoid slipping, had returned to the mixed zone. “It’s totally annoying to concede a goal like that at the end. We had a good match and we will remember that. For the refereeing, I did not review all the images. Beyond all that, we have to do better with refereeing in general because there are mistakes every weekend. I saw Monaco’s red again, it’s rubbish, while Khalis Merah in Rennes takes a huge sole and there’s nothing. We don’t understand everything that’s going on, there needs to be more dialogue. Things are explained to us at the beginning of the year but that is not what is applied. This season, we are paying very dearly for the refereeing level.”
Matthieu Louis-Jean was also annoyed. “I would like to start by really congratulating the team. We saw a very beautiful face from Olympique Lyonnais this evening. We are very proud of the performance of our team. The coach had a great match too. The team caused problems for PSG. This evening, there is extreme disappointment because we consider that there are serious trash mistakes. And once again, we are completely incomprehensible (…) Listen, there is a penalty from Zabarnyi. There is a hand that is clear, in my opinion, we saw the slow motion. On Tanner Tessmann, there is a foul, he touches the knee. It’s blatant. At some point, I don’t know what to do. We tried everything. We talked. We talked with them. We even went to see them. But it continues. We don’t understand. There is a real problem of consistency in the arbitration. But we repeat that every weekend. It’s not just us. I’m watching the Monaco – Lens match on Saturday.”
MLJ finishes off Monsieur Bastien
The Lyon technical director added: “There is a red card for Monaco which is incomprehensible. At some point, you have to ask yourself questions. At some point, we will have to sit down around a table and think about our arbitration. Because every weekend, it’s not just us. I think that all the Ligue 1 teams consider that there are problems. Once again, I am at a loss. What should be done? What must be done to have correct refereeing every weekend in Ligue 1? (…) We have known the facts of the game in the past. I will come back, for example, to the Rennes match. We will probably get extra points. And this (Sunday) evening, once again, Mr. Bastien’s refereeing is a disaster (…) No, I did not see the referees after the match. They never say anything anyway. And on Monday, the week will start without any problem.”
MLJ, for whom it is not a habit to complain about arbitration, concluded: “It’s starting to be a lot. Again, what can we do? What should we do? We tried everything. We tried the exchanges, we went to see them. They explain things to us. And there, it starts to do a lot. A lot for us. We fight with our means. It’s not easy. We don’t have a plethoric squad, but we are given red cards, once again. And when I see the last Strasbourg match, it took five minutes to send off the Strasbourg player for an attack on Malick Fofana, etc. This is what I don’t understand. Why, due to Tessmann’s fault, does the VAR not call Mr. Bastien? It’s a total incomprehension given this evening’s refereeing.” The message got through…
