UCL: PSG players claim Ref Kuipers told them to ‘f*** off’ during Man City loss
Ander Herrera and Marco Verratti have accused referee Bjorn Kuipers of insulting Paris Saint-Germain’s players during their Champions League defeat to Manchester City.
PSG lost 2-0 in their semi-final second leg on Tuesday night to lose the tie 4-1 on aggregate.
Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring after 11 minutes, and once he doubled City’s lead on the night in the 63rd minute, PSG simply imploded.
Angel Di Maria was shown a straight red for a petulant stamp on Fernandinho in the 69th minute, while Marco Verratti, Danilo Pereira and Presnel Kimpembe all picked up late bookings as PSG’s tackling became reckless.
Tensions clearly boiled over in the final 20 minutes, and afterwards Herrera and Verratti made the extraordinary claim that Kuipers told some of PSG’s players to “f*** off”.
Herrera told RMC, per France-based journalist Matt Spiro: “We talk about respect with referees… the referee tonight said f*** off to Leandro Paredes. If we say that we get a three-four match ban.”
Verratti added: “He said f*** you to me… I talk to referees a lot but I never say that or I get a 10-game ban.”
Mahrez told BT Sport afterwards: “They lost their nerve and started to kick us and after the red card it was more comfortable.”
The first English side to win 1️⃣1️⃣ games in a single European Cup/Champions League season! 😱
Man City are absolutely relentless 🔥🔥🔥
Look at what it means! pic.twitter.com/iz5HcnwPdX
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 4, 2021
Read Also: BREAKING: Man City advance to first UCL final as PSG lose heads
City meanwhile put in an immense defensive display, blocking nine shots and leaving PSG without a shot on target in a match where they required at least two goals to have a chance of progressing.
Mahrez added: “You have to be solid and everybody has to be solid defensively and that’s why we did. We didn’t concede much and I think that’s why we’re in the final. It’s good.
“We have another game on Saturday we need to be win to be league champions and then we’ll concentrate on the Champions League final.”