Lille: Benatia’s immense rant against arbitration

The first round of 16 of the Coupe de France ended this Tuesday with a prestigious poster between Olympique de Marseille and LOSC. On the pitch at the Vélodrome, the Phocéens were keen to confirm their good momentum, just a few days after the victory in Rennes in the championship. But they were finally eliminated on penalties (1-1, 3-4 tab). After the final whistle, Medhi Benatia gave a huge rant about the refereeing, he who was excluded.

Benatia’s reaction

“We had a great match, there is something to be proud of in terms of content. We naively defend on goal. We show a lot of courage and self-sacrifice. We came back thanks to a superb goal from Luis Henrique. We know very well that penalties are a bit of a lottery. Something happened this evening. I have a favor to ask you. This evening, what I just experienced is serious. We score, I go to see the fourth referee (Jérémy Stinat) to tell him that there was a penalty (on Rowe). In passing, I remove my coach who is arguing with Olivier Létang. There were a lot of people there at that time, around fifteen people. Clément Turpin arrives from 50 meters, he comes there and ‘bam’ red! I come back to see the fourth referee who tells me that I threatened him with my finger. It’s a service, find me the images. There are specialists to know what I said, to see what I did. I know I don’t have the right to speak, I understand that very well. I don’t have the right to work, I know that very well. (…) When we speak, we are not listened to, it doesn’t matter. But there is a penalty there. We didn’t say anything at the time. I’m not saying anything about the penalty but I’m going to say something bad to the referee after we scored. You must be an idiot. The 4th referee said to me ‘you threatened me with your finger. They don’t want to let me work, it’s annoying. I’ve never seen that. Maybe I should resign and find another job. What did I do to deserve this treatment? How can I ensure that OM is treated correctly? Why am I not allowed to be there? If you have any answers, I’m interested.” he said at the microphone of beIN Sports.

He then spoke about the Mercato: “We are doing something coherent. We changed a lot in the off-season, it’s a risk we’ve taken on. We took time to put the game in place wanted by the coach. The team has recovered well, there is an incredible mentality. The boys don’t give up. It’s a shame today, the Cup was a real goal, we wanted to give a trophy to these fans, they deserve it. We haven’t done anything yet. But we are happy. In the Mercato, there will be no big changes. Depending on departures, we will try to adjust. We must continue like this.“

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