STILL FORMIDABLE
Ronaldo keeps Juventus perfect in Serie A
to Lenglet and gave him my hand because we had been awarded the foul after we collided and at first I thought I had committed the foul,” Pons told reporters.
“It was no-one’s fault and in the end the person who decided was a third party, the VAR. I didn’t notice the impact from his elbow.”
At the time of the incident, Barca were leading 1-0 with a goal from Lionel Messi but Girona made the most of their numerical advantage with two strikes either side of halftime from Cristhian Stuani to take an unlikely lead.
Gerard Pique then netted a header to level the score.
“We played incredibly well here and it annoys me that the only thing everyone is talking about is that incident,” added Pons.
Barca coach Ernesto Valverde also thought the red card was harsh on Lenglet.
“It’s the first sending-off where I’ve seen the player who received the foul apologised,” he said.
“I suppose VAR will do it justice but I have the sensation it wasn’t a sending-off; there may have been an impact but I don’t think it was aggressive at all. It’s a foul by the opponent.”
Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets criticised the involvement of the video referee in the sending off.
“VAR needs to be used correctly and with the same criteria,” Busquets said.
“Perhaps there was contact but the ball was on the floor and it’s a natural movement. It wasn’t aggressive, he didn’t go out to hurt him and even the Girona player apologised as he had made the foul.”
• PARIS: From a deeper than usual playmaker role Brazil’s Neymar pulled the strings as Paris Saint-Germain came from behind to beat Rennes 3-1 in Ligue 1 on Sunday, helping to dispel midweek memories of a European flop at Liverpool.
Hosts Rennes took a surprise 11th minute lead when PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot nodded past his own ‘keeper, Gianluigi Buffon, from a corner before goals from Angel Di Maria, Thomas Meunier and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting gave them a hard-fought sixth straight Ligue 1 win.
Neymar gave the thumbs-up to 45-year-old Thomas Tuchel, who arrived in the off-season to replace Arsenal-bound Unai Emery.
“We get on well, he’s a young coach and we like the way he sets the team up and coaches,” said the Brazilian.
“We appreciate the way he communicates with the players and we hope his contribution helps us to achieve big things this season.”
A young fan ran on to the pitch as Neymar was leaving as a late substitute and the youngster crumpled in tears as his hero hugged him and gave him his shirt in touching scenes that are likely to go viral on social media.
In Sunday’s late match Lyon, who stunned Manchester City in the Champions League in midweek, continued to show signs of exiting their early season slump with an entertaining 4-2 win over Marseille.
Pointless Guingamp were left rock bottom when they were beaten 3-1 at home by Bordeaux.
• BERLIN: Sweden playmaker Emil Forsberg converted a second-half penalty for RB Leipzig at Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday in a 1-1 draw with French junior internationals Jean-Kevin Augustin and Nordi Mukiele dropped in a row over their use of mobile phones.
Furious Leipzig coach Ralf Rangnick threw the French Under-21 talent out of the squad for the Bundesliga match at Frankfurt after the pair were caught using their phones — breaking team protocol — in the build-up to Thursday’s 3-2 Europa League home defeat against Red Bull Salzburg.
“The boys (striker Augustin and midfielder Mukiele) will be back in the squad for training tomorrow and I hope they paid attention to this warning,” said Rangnick after the draw in Frankfurt.
“The topic is now closed for us and we are looking forward to Wednesday’s league game against VfB Stuttgart.”
Earlier, rising Germany star Kai Havertz ended Bayer Leverkusen’s miserable losing start to the season with a second-half winner to seal a 1-0 victory over Mainz and escape the Bundesliga’s bottom three.