Club World Cup: PSG coach Luis Enrique says he 'regrets post-match situation'
Enrique says incident at end of match could have been avoided
EAST RUTHERFORD: Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) manager Luis Enrique said that ‘most-match scuffle could have been avoided by everyone’ following Chelsea's dominating 3-0 win in the Club World Cup final on Sunday.
Cole Palmer delivered a scintillating first-half performance, netting two goals and providing an assist to Joao Pedro for the third to seal it for the Blues.
Frustrations boiled over late in the game, with PSG reduced to 10 men in the 85th minute when Joao Neves was sent off following a VAR review for pulling defender Marc Cucurella's hair.
Tensions escalated after the final whistle, when the players from both sides clashed, with PSG head coach Enrique appearing to raise his hands to Pedro's face. Pedro hit the deck, and the PSG manager was quietly escorted away.
Enrique said that the incident at the end of the match could have been avoided by everyone.
"At the end of the match, there was a situation that I believe could have been avoided by everyone," Luis Enrique said.
"My objective and my intention, as always, is to try to win over the players so that there are no more problems. Internally, there is a lot of tension, a lot of pressure."
The PSG boss acknowledged the seriousness of the incident, saying this should not happen again.
"And from there, there is a series of shoves from a lot of people, which I think we should all avoid and which should not happen again," he added.
The match was a one-sided affair as the European Cup and French league champions failed to perform according to expectations after cruising past Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-final stage of the expanded, 32-team tournament.
Enrique said that is what football is about, and cannot explain everything. He also praised the opposition.
"Football - that's the way it is. Can't explain everything," said Luis Enrique.
"I believe they actually started the game really, really well with a lot of pressure and we gave them a hard time. And then after that I believe they had opportunities to score but it didn't happen."
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