OM-Nice, the big rant

Nice goalkeeper Marcin Bulka does not understand the penalty awarded to OM against Nice (2-2), while Mr. Pignard’s performance left a lot to be desired.

It was spectacular, this OM-Nice (2-2) on Wednesday evening, but we can only regret the performance of the referee M.Pignard, who inherited the rating of 2/10 in L’Equipe. What is he accused of? A very surprising penalty at the start of the second half, transformed by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (56th).

On this action, Mohamed-Ali Cho clears the ball, and his foot ends up on that of Leonardo Balerdi, involuntarily. The ball is no longer in play, the gesture is not excessively dangerous. But Mr. Pignard whistled this penalty which surprised many people at real speed. “For me, there is no penalty, I no longer understand the rules, frankly, railed Nice goalkeeper Marcin Bulka at the RMC microphone. It’s clear that our player clears the ball well, his intention is not to hit a defender. »

The VAR referees also had great doubts, since they asked Mr. Pignard to come and see the images, but he maintained his decision. “I thought the referee was going to change his mind but he looked at the VAR and decided to give Marseille a penalty and we don’t agree with thatadded Bulka, who does not forget the mistakes of his team, unable to win in the second half at 11 against 10. Even without that, we must win the match whether there is a penalty or not because we had a numerical advantage. »

A big mistake on each side?

To add to Mr. Pignard’s criticized performance, there is also this very severe red card awarded to Faris Moumbagna, for a second yellow card (45th). And when both camps feel wronged by one or more decisions, it is not necessarily a good sign, it does not necessarily mean that the referee was impartial. “A mistake by the referee never makes up for a mistake. That makes two mistakes”Frédéric Antonetti rightly summed up in the commentary on Canal+ Foot.

On the Marseille side, however, we prefer not to dwell on this red card which penalized OM in this match and which will cause a match suspension for Moumbagna. “ No, it’s done, it’s done, reacted Jean-Louis Gasset at a press conference, relays Le Phocéen. It’s true that it didn’t seem like an attack from a distance. Afterwards, of course the slow motion should give more images, but I saw Mehdi (Benatia) at half-time who told me that it wasn’t deserved. We don’t comment. We had to spend the half time organizing the team and saying exactly what needed to be done to get a good result. This is what we tried to do while always having the objective of winning. »