« If You Leave the Field, It’s for the Hospital »: Real Sociedad Coach Rebukes Own Player

Real Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil didn’t take kindly to PSG’s first goal scored by Mbappé. One of his players faced criticism.

Kylian Mbappé’s goal changed everything. PSG finally reacted after 50 minutes of slumber. But for coach Imanol Alguacil, the culprit was… someone who wasn’t even on the field. « We gifted them the first goal, and we lost control of the game. In a match like this, it’s not acceptable. You can imagine my anger over the first goal. »

Because at that moment, right-back Hamari Traoré left his team with ten men due to a muscle injury. « I can’t understand our player’s substitution at that moment. If you leave like that, you abandon your team. If you do that, it’s because you need to go to the hospital. And that wasn’t the case, so the player came off the pitch. »

« It’s a shame because even Luis Enrique told me that we caused them big problems, but at this level, you can’t afford to be generous. But me, anyway, I’ll dream before the return leg. We could have even paid a higher price for it. Seeing the first half, it’s a poor result. But seeing the second, we almost got away with it. Come on, let’s be positive… The goal conditioned the rest. It was a balanced match, we were holding our own, which is already a lot, and we had our chances. We were doing a great job to stop them, not just Mbappé. Even Luis Enrique told me that we made them suffer. That should be taken into account. »