As soon as the final whistle, this Wednesday night in Bilbao, Olivier Echouafni was up against the refereeing of Ms. Pustovoitova after the elimination in the semi-final of the Women’s Champions League against Lyon (0-1). Half an hour later, when presenting himself at a press conference, the PSG coach had put a little water in his wine, however not hiding his disappointment after this new defeat against OL.
Do you think the refereeing affected the outcome of the match?
OLIVIER ECHOUAFNI. After the game I was angry with the refereeing indeed, but I don’t want to hide behind it. We are so disappointed. We did not know how to be at the level at times. But it is also because the arbitration did not allow us to be. There have been many situations against us. Two reds and five or six yellows is quite important. The expulsion hurt us a lot with the goal behind. It was a double penalty.
What did you learn from this match?
The strongest point was our state of mind. We put intensity and combativeness. The girls made the perfect match at this level, but the refereeing decided otherwise. She considered that we were too aggressive, but I can’t think of it. It’s still a semi-final of the Champions League.
What did you fish on?
It was not all perfect. We did not achieve everything we wanted. We didn’t know how to be dangerous enough in the last 20 meters. In the end, we pushed a lot, but we did not manage to endanger them enough. Overall, we have to do more offensively. I found us less sharp than against Arsenal (2-1 in quarterfinals). We didn’t manage to scare them enough.
Don’t you feel like history is repeating itself?
It does not go far, but it is the high level, it is even the very high level. It is played on a player of 1.87 m (Renard) and a well-shot free kick (from Majri). We must find solutions to avoid taking this kind of goals.
