Just like his team on Tuesday night, Girona manager Michel can hold his head high after giving a dignified and philosophical assessment of his team’s narrow defeat to Liverpool.
The Champions League debutants had called the returning Alisson Becker into action several times before the game’s decisive moment, a penalty converted by Mo Salah and awarded after a clumsy foul by Donny van de Beek on Luis Diaz, with the referee pointing to the spot after recourse to VAR.
A number of pundits – including Stephen Warnock, Craig Burley, Steve McManaman and Rio Ferdinand – disagreed with the eventual decision, but the man whose team were negatively impacted by it instead took a magnanimous view.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Michel had few complaints over the call by on-field ref Benoit Bastien following a consultation with the pitchside monitor.
The Girona manager said (via Liverpool Echo): “He [Van de Beek] takes his [Diaz’s] boot off and I thought he would call a foul. He steps on it a little on the sideline, and we’re in this VAR reality. I don’t like these situations very much, but when I saw him take his boot off, I understood the decision.”
We must applaud Michel for such a dignified assessment of the game-changing decision, especially when so many pundits were vehemtly arguing that it was the wrong call.
To us, the replays showed a clear barge by Van de Beek on Diaz, whose heel was caught by the Girona midfielder. It mightn’t have been the most forceful challenge, but was still careless and clumsy by the Dutchman, who could have no complaints with Bastien pointing to the spot.
Also, his manager graciously acnowledged afterwards that the LaLiga side needed to take one or two of the chances that they created against opposition of Liverpool’s calibre. We can think of plenty of coaches who’d have been too busy moaning about refereeing decisions instead.
Kudos to Michel for such a magnanimous post-match verdict, and the best of luck to his team for the rest of the season. It now seems quite unlikely that they’ll go any further in the Champions League, but their league form gives them every chance of being back in Europe next term.
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