Lens and Lyon rail against refereeing after two matches they should have won by a wide margin

Two points in common between Lens and Lyon on Saturday evening: a fiery first half which should have seen the two teams fold the match against OM and Reims, then a more gloomy second act marred by questionable whistles which did not not swayed in their direction.

Thus, the Nodists believed they had snatched a draw at the end of the match, before the referee M.Wattellier reversed a contact that he had not deemed fit to whistle at the entrance to the Lens area after an appeal from the VAR, at the very beginning of the action. Live, Fulgini's foul on Nadir seemed quite obvious, an impression confirmed by the slow motion video. Assessment? Free kick for OM from 18 meters, lulu from Hojbjerg and end of the suspense (1-3).

“Can we say that there is a manifest error? »

Will Still, suspended for this meeting, did not like this decision: “If there is a foul on Angelo (Fulgini), there is also a foul on Kevin (Danso), there is also a foul on the hand of Rabiot on the action. From the moment the referee is 2 m from the phase and he does not whistle, can we say that there is a manifest error on his part (to be called by the VAR ) ? That's a lot of questionable decisions. » Especially since if the decision is the right one, we enter here the sometimes incomprehensible zone of the regulations: if Lens had not scored, the referee would never have returned to the initial fault, and the locals would have had ten minutes more to try to equalize rather than find yourself two goals behind.

Later, in the evening, in Reims, OL often felt cheated by the refereeing of Stéphanie Frappart, against whom the club had developed a form of phobia for many seasons. In the viewfinder, this time, two contacts in the area on Fofana and Lacazette, who both whistled at each other without being absolutely scandalous. Except that neither the field referee nor the VAR lifted a finger. Hence the anger of Daniel Congré, the Lyon sports coordinator, at the microphone of Dazn.

“Two contentious situations to our disadvantage”

“We just want to understand. There were two contentious situations which went against us this evening. I am obviously talking about the two penalties which were not whistled on Alexandre Lacazette and Malick Fofana. I would simply like to understand why Madame Frappart did not go to see the VAR. For me, there was definitely food for thought. I don’t know if you’ve seen the images, but clearly his support foot is hit.”

Remarks admissible in both cases, but which should not mask the offensive deficiencies of two teams who once again suffered from the lack of success of their attackers on Saturday, as often since the start of the season.