Alban Lafont will probably never forget his performance against Paris Saint-Germain (3-1). The FC Nantes goalkeeper was almost impossible to pass on Saturday evening and from L’Equipe the 23-year-old closing item gets a 10 as a mark. This puts Lafont in an illustrious list with, among others, Dusan Tadic. The captain of Ajax also received a 10 in 2019 after his sublime performance against Real Madrid (1-4 victory) in the eighth final of the Champions League. At PSG, there is mainly anger about the role of the arbitration in the defeat.
In total, twelve players from L’Equipe ever a 10 after a game. Lafont made a total of eight saves against PSG on Saturday night, including a poorly shot penalty from Neymar. After half an hour of playing against the leader, the Nantes star already had five nice saves to his name. “He’s been in excellent form all season, but this was without a doubt his best game yet. It was like Lafont was walking on water. He radiated incredible authority in all the duels he fought. He simply wasn’t.” to pass”, the French newspaper exults the day after the heroic role of the Nantes goalkeeper.
And the worst penalty of the year goes to… Neymar! † The Brazilian can turn it into a competition again, but produces no more than a limp roller??#ZiggoSport #Ligue1 #FCNPSG pic.twitter.com/kyZKPHqiKF
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) February 19, 2022
Trainer Antoine Kombouaré spoke about ‘the great Alban’ afterwards. The goalkeeper with roots in Burkina Faso already made his debut in the main squad of Toulouse at the age of fifteen. In 2018, Lafont forced a transfer to Fiorentina, although he was unable to break through. After two seasons on a rental basis, the young keeper was definitively taken over by Nantes. The hero of the sub-topper now has fourteen caps for France Under 21 to his name.
The defeat against Nantes caused the necessary chagrin at PSG. Marco Verratti was particularly dissatisfied with the performance of referee Mikael Lesage. “He should have given Dennis Appiah a second yellow card for his foul on Kylian Mbappe,” the angry midfielder said. Canal+† “How is it possible that he does not give a yellow card? The referees really have to take responsibility, because they are really treating us like shit.” Appiah was initially shown a red card, but after consultation with VAR, Lesage showed the yellow card. The VAR ruled that Nantes player Mbappe had not withheld a real chance of scoring and that a penalty was not necessary either.
Marco Verratti, like Leonardo, is furious with referee Mikael Lesage.
The outraged Verratti soon received support from technical director Leonardo. “The referee should have managed it better. With fouls like the one on Kylian, we run the risk of missing players for three months. It’s also bizarre that there is a minute of injury time in the first half and that the penalty kick van Nantes is then given in the 49th minute. I definitely don’t want to make a whine, because we rightly lost. But there is clearly a great desire on the part of the umpires to whistle at us, which is getting really embarrassing.”
“Lesage left a lot of offenses against our players unpunished,” said the disappointed Leonardo. “He even said: ‘It’s about Mbappe and Neymar, so I don’t give anything. It’s PSG and Lionel Messi, so they don’t get anything’. I could also be wrong and we have to accept defeat and learn from it. “But today’s referee was very verbal to our players. I’m not saying we lost because of him, please don’t bring it up. But take a look at the footage again and then make a judgment. We lost, but I’m watching too to the facts that tell me a lot. But if you don’t agree with that, I respect that. It’s just my opinion,” concludes Leonardo.
Alban Lafont gets a 10 from L’Equipe for his heroic role against Paris Saint-Germain.