Angry PSG president storms referee room and breaks equipment after Madrid loss

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi stormed the referee’s dressing room and broke equipment after his side were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid.

Karim Benzema netted a second-half hat trick to help Madrid overturn a two-goal deficit to progress to the quarterfinals 3-2 on aggregate.

Al-Khelaifi , however, was not happy with the Frenchman’s first goal and felt the striker fouled goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

After the full-time, the PSG boss and sporting director Leonardo left the presidential box shouting and describing the decision as “shameful” before making their way to the Bernabeu tunnel area in search of the referee’s dressing room.

According to the referee’s report, he “behaved aggresively and tried to enter the referee’s dressing room. When the referee asked them to leave, the president hit a piece of the assistant’s equipment, breaking it.”

Security staff were later called in to calm the situation down.

PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino also criticised the referee’s decision to allow Benzema’s equaliser in his post-match news conference.

“It’s a feeling of a lot of injustice, with the goal we conceded,” he said. “It’s a clear foul from Benzema on Donnarumma. The emotional state of the game changed and we were very exposed. It’s a tremendous blow, because we were better in the tie. We were better for 180 minutes.”

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