In added time, when the score was 3-3, Alexandre Lacazette suffered a big foul from Marco Bizot. After viewing the images, the referee awarded a penalty to OL, converted by Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the victory.
The match between OL and Brest was already tough, at 3-3, but it turned into something else again at the end of added time, when Marco Bizot came to collide head-on with Alexandre Lacazette, knee and hands forward. In a match marked by often contentious refereeing decisions, the penalty awarded cannot be contested.
With only one minute and thirty seconds left to play, the Brest goalkeeper completely missed his exit. He did not touch the ball, pushed back by Brendan Chardonnet, but he dried Lacazette. However, it took the intervention of VAR for the referee of the match, Mathieu Vernice, to consult the images and finally decide to award the penalty to OL. Bizot, in his misfortune, can consider himself lucky to have only received a yellow card.
Before that, Brest not helped by arbitration
“I hope that Alexandre is well because he suffered a shock which reminded me terribly of Schumacher,” even said Jean-Michel Aulas, the former president of the club, present on Sunday evening. The Lyon captain, visibly seriously injured, was taken out on a stretcher and was unable to take the decisive penalty. Ainsley Maitland-Niles, specialist in the exercise, took care of it to give OL a 4-3 victory.
The people of Brest will, however, have regrets. In addition to leading 3-1 during the match, they were not helped by the referee’s decisions. They could also have benefited from a penalty in the first period, for a handball from Jake O’Brien. On the action which led to Lyon’s first goal, Lacazette was probably offside, and Caqueret could have taken a red in the first half. Finally, the exclusion of Lees-Melou in the second half seems severe.