says ‘football is a very unfair sport,’ but not because of the controversial late penalty in Saint-Germain’s draw with Newcastle, but because his side deserved to win.
It looked like Aleksander Isak’s first half goal was going to give Newcastle a famous win in Paris on Tuesday night, until they conceded a penalty deep into stoppage time.
Tino Livramento was very harshly adjudged to have handled the ball in his own penalty area, a decision not given by the referee but overturned after a VAR intervention.
put the penalty away and the game finished 1-1, but Enrique feels his team deserved all three points.
The home team were certainly dominant, squandered numerous chances and came up against a goalkeeper in Nick Pope who was in fine form, but ultimately it was a very fortunate penalty which saw them pinch a point.
Enrique’s point of view will do little to cheer up frustrated Newcastle fans, though, saying: ‘I truly believe football is a very unfair sport, but that’s what makes it special, without disrespecting other sports.
‘It’s a match we should have won right from the start. We had far more chances than our opponent. We had a lot more possession in the opponent’s half and many more shots on target.
‘In short, we were the better side. But if you don’t convert, if you don’t score, you don’t win! And tonight, when everything seemed lost, we ended up scoring from a penalty in the last minute. And I have to thank the crowd, who pushed us all the way, even when we were behind. It’s incredible, thank you to everyone.’
Newcastle’s hopes of making the knockout stages are not over, but they must beat AC Milan in their last game and hope PSG do not beat Borussia Dortmund.
PSG know that a win over the Germans will secure their passage through the group stage, though.
‘It’s curious because now it’s entirely in our hands,’ said Enrique. ‘If we win in Dortmund, we’ll finish top. But at the same time, with a draw, we could be knocked out. We could even qualify by losing if the other match ends in a draw.
‘We were handed the “group of death” and now we understand why. But what’s important is that we only rely on ourselves and the objective is to win in Dortmund.’
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