... and boss faces sack after capitulation
MAURICIO POCHETTINO is facing the sack at Paris Saint-Germain after their abject second-half capitulation against real Madrid last night. ‘The present is all I can deal with,’ said the under-fire manager after the 3-1 defeat saw them crash out of the Champions League at the round of 16. ‘As for the future, what will be will be. We play to compete and to win. It’s a hard blow to take but we have to keep a calm head.’ His ‘que sera sera’ response will not go down well with the club’s president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who Spanish television reporter Monica Marchante said was incandescent with rage after the defeat.
There were accusations that the PSG president went banging on doors looking for the referee’s dressing room after the match had finished. Pochettino, who is a leading contender for the Manchester United job in the summer, also blamed the match officials, feeling his goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was fouled for Karim Benzema’s first goal.
‘How can I explain it? It’s easy to explain. But I think the biggest mistake is from VAR for their first goal,’ the Argentine said. ‘When we conceded, the nerves set in and with the sense of injustice we were too open to concede further. At 1-1, we were still going through but we conceded two more.
‘Real Madrid had nothing to lose at 1-1 to take the game to extra time and we could not react to the situation properly.’ PSG captain Marquinhos added: ‘It’s tough to explain. Over the two games, we deserved better — but we paid dearly for our mistakes.’ This week marked the fiveyear anniversary of PSG’s 6-1 defeat by Barcelona, having led 4-0 after the first leg.
This somehow feels even worse for the French club who added Lionel Messi to existing superstars Kylian Mbappe and Neymar in a bid to win their first Champions League. Le Parisien in France said both Pochettino and sporting director Leonardo would both pay the price for the defeat.
A victorious real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti said: ‘It was the magic of the stadium with a fantastic history and this club with such a fantastic history. It’s an unforgettable night. ‘The game changed after their first goal and the atmosphere was the key.’