Speaking to Canal Plus after a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Marseille at the Stade Vélodrome, Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas was scathing in his criticism of the refereeing and general atmosphere.
“Of course the result is incontestable. However, it is true that the match as a whole gave a deplorable image of football in terms of passion but also reactions. When you try and apply a pressure that is not contained on our players, our club representatives, before the match. When during the match there are at least two cases of difficulty with the application of VAR, because it seems to me that Sanson handballed just before our handball which leads to the penalty, which changes the fate of the match and then there is the swipe from Benedetto on Dubois, which, is not at all blown up on. Congratulations to Marseille who applied a fantastic amount of pressure, who managed to train their little ball boys to no longer give us the ball at the end, who proceeded so that the pressure was immense. Now, it is true that Marseille won, we are not going to contest that, but there are huge refereeing errors and a pressure that is too big, when the opposition bus is damaged at the click of a finger in order to threaten, there, it’s a shame… But that said, take nothing away from Marseille who played a very good match.”