Lacazette fires shots at Ligue 1 referees for alleged backing of PSG

Last night’s derby game between Lyon and PSG was a joy to watch as it had everything an average football fans wants: goals (five), chances, excitement, drama (the winner was scored in the 95th minute), a bit of fire (Goncalo Ramos taunted Lyon fans) and firm duels (Tagliafico got the red card). But as an Olympique fan, the game was terrible and the referee, along with his assistants ruined everything. The day after a 3-2 PSG win, everybody in Lyon is complaining, from the assistant coach (Paulo Fonseca is still suspended) and director, to current and former players. And one of them is thousands of kilometers away, but doesn't miss a single match of his former team.

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Alexandre Lacazette, the former Lyon captain is now playing in Saudi Arabia for Neom (five goals in nine matches) but always watches his former club, where he scored 201 goals in ten seasons (ranks second on the club's all-time top scorers list). After the game, he was quick to point out on his X account: “Well done OL. Not easy playing 11 against 12”, clearly thinking about referee Mr. Bastien, whose three decisions clearly stood out. They were all against Lyon.

The first one was a handball from Zabarnyi in the 28th minute which didn’t result in a penalty. The second one was apparent foul by Vitinha, after which the Portuguese passed the ball to Kvaratskhelia, who scored for the second PSG lead (2-1). The foul was not called and the goal stood. The third controversial decision was a possible penalty for Lyon in the 42nd minute (the score was 2-1 for PSG). Nicolas Tagliafico met a cross from Lucas Chevalier that hit the post. But the left-back was impeded by a rough challenge from Kang-In Lee behind him. The replayed showed he was kicked in the leg, but no penalty was given.

“If we have to do referee analysis every weekend, in every stadium in the country, it's going to be difficult. I think there are 59,000 people in the stadium, and only four of them didn't watch the fouls that needed analyzing. We don't even need to watch the replays. They're the best team in Europe, they don't need to play with 16 men, because I'm counting VAR too, to come here against a team that played on Thursday in the Europa League, that prepared very well for the match and played well" said Lyon assistant coach Jorge Maciel.

Lyon’s technical director raised concerns about the refereeing in France.

“I'm baffled. What needs to be done?! What needs to be done to have fair refereeing every weekend in Ligue 1? Mr. Bastien's refereeing was a disaster! No, I didn't see him after the match, but anyway, he never says anything, it's never their fault. It's starting to become too much! Again, what can we do?! We've tried everything, we've tried talking to them, we've gone to see them, we've said things... it's starting to become too much for us. We're fighting with what we have right now, it's not easy, we don't have a huge squad and we're getting red cards... When I see Strasbourg's last match, where it took five minutes to send off a player for a foul on Malick Fofana... that's what I don't understand" said Matthieu Louis-Jean.