PSG crushes Villarreal 6-0 but Luis Enrique fumes over refereeing decision

PSG crushed Villarreal 6-0 in the Ligue des Champions on Tuesday evening, but the Spanish evening nearly turned into an administrative nightmare in the 74th minute, triggering Luis Enrique’s fury in the post-match press conference.

As the Catalan manager was about to make a triple substitution, the referee ruled that the departing players were leaving the pitch too slowly and restarted play without waiting. PSG found itself with eight players against eleven until the confusion cleared. Luis Enrique, furious, physically pushed one of his players onto the field to force him back into play — a gesture that earned the player a yellow card, before the referee reversed his decision and ultimately allowed him to remain on the pitch.

“What happened with the three substitutions was a real joke. If the score had been 0-0 and they’d taken three players away from us… Then I push one of them, he gets a yellow card and we let him continue. I should have pushed the other two as well! What is this, a children’s game? You also have to respect professionals, just as we respect the refereeing body,” said the PSG manager, in comments reported by Marca.

Once his anger subsided, Luis Enrique nonetheless praised his players’ collective performance. He highlighted the consistency of their level of commitment regardless of the scoreline, seeing it as a sign of maturity and ambition. “I want to emphasize our mentality — we played the same way regardless of the result. It was a test for this team’s ambition. It’s a pleasure. When you just seek to keep playing the same way, those are positive things. But we are not yet champions, nor in a final in Madrid.”

PSG thus confirms its dominance in the group stage, while keeping its feet on the ground according to its manager’s own words.