By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) – Note language in paragraph three that readers may find offensive
Paris St Germain coach Luis Enrique blamed his team’s 2-1 defeat at home to Atletico Madrid on bad luck, admitting the Ligue 1 leaders’ qualification chances were in danger as they plunged into the red zone of the Champions League group phase on Wednesday.
PSG applied their usual possession pattern but were again pretty much toothless in attack, owing Warren Zaire Emery’s opener to a defensive blunder.
Nahuel Molina equalised quickly and Atletico’s resilience paid off three minutes into injury time thanks to second-half substitute Angel Correa’s goal at the end of a counter attack — a scenario that Enrique labelled a ‘bad joke’ at the end of a ‘shitty day’.
PSG had a handful of clear chances through Achraf Hakimi, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele but, with no pure lone forward, were unable to convert.
“There are no words. I think that in our three home games, we were highly superior to our opponents but we did not have any luck,” Enrique said.
“As long as there are matches, we will fight,” he added, before PSG travel to Bayern Munich on Nov. 26.
PSG are 25th in the 36-team league, just in the elimination zone, midway through the group phase.
“I’ve been in the game for over 30 years and I can’t explain it. It’s just bad luck. We were infinitely superior to our opponents,” said Enrique.
“We would have deserved to win our three home games. Comfortably.”
Asked if PSG’s chances to go through the league phase were in danger, he said: “Undoubtedly.
“We created 50 chances in three games and we failed to convert so many of them… we need 20 clear chances to score and our opponents sneeze and they score… it sounds like a bad joke,” he said.
“Creating chances is the team’s responsibility and I’m responsible for the team, so I’m responsible for the results. If I fail, I will fail with my ideas. We’re on the right path.”
His Atletico counterpart Diego Simeone praised his team for their performance despite injuries in defence.
“Today we were missing five players in defence,” he said after a result that put them on six points, above the elimination zone.
“Despite these absences, the team were strong; we conceded the goal on a mistake but we continued to play.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Clare Fallon)
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