Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino was left disgusted with the refereeing performance on Wednesday evening.
The Argentine manager oversaw another PSG collapse in Europe’s premier competition at the hands of Real Madrid on this occasion. Yet Pochettino couldn’t believe that Los Blancos’ opening goal, which kickstarted the three-goal comeback, was allowed to stand.
In the lead up to the goal, Karim Benzema put PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma under pressure and the Italian subsequently gave the ball away. Pochettino and PSG bench felt that Benzema used unfair force and that VAR should have ruled the goal out. Mundo Deportivo recounted his thoughts.
“It is a foul by Benzema on Donnarumma that was not called. In that moment we became incredibly flustered and that sense of injustice played a dirty trick on us. Those fifteen minutes we didn’t know how to manage out emotions.”
“I can’t explain it. I think we were superior but we didn’t manage to make that count.”
Asked about his future, which was already shrouded in doubt, Pochettino remained diplomatic.
“We need to remain calm at this point. What needs to happen, will happen. We competed to win and now we have to recover from such a tough blow.”
The Argentine manager remained considerably calmer than his boss. Qatari owner of PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, was seen rampaging through the Santiago Bernabeu to take these complaints up with the referee himself after the match.