EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — He was trying to break things up, that’s what Luis Enrique is going with.
Moments after Paris Saint-Germain lost its bid to cap a historic season in a 3-0 defeat in the Club World Cup against Chelsea, Enrique, the PSG manager, took a swipe at Chelsea striker João Pedro during a postgame altercation, striking him near his neck and chin.
Just before that confrontation, Enrique approached Pedro, who was having a discussion with PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. As Enrique seemingly tried to calm tensions, Pedro swatted Enrique’s hands away, leading to Enrique making the contact near Pedro’s head.
“At the end of the match there was a situation that I think was totally avoidable, for everyone involved,” Enrique said in Spanish during his post-match press conference “My objective and intention, like always, was to separate the players to avoid further problems. There was a lot of tension, a lot of passion. There was shoving going on and I think we should avoid that and it should never happen again.
“But I repeat: my intention was to avoid things getting worse.”
The incident seemed to simmer from a series of physical challenges toward the end of the match. Paris Saint-Germain, clearly frustrated with its impending defeat, was enforced for two yellow cards and a third that was overturned on review to a red in the final 10 minutes of the match. During the sequence that led to the red card, PSG midfielder João Neves tugged on Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella’s hair, pulling him to the turf.
“I don’t need to say anything about them because it’s normal,” Pedro said after the match. “Everyone wants to win the game, and in the end, I think they lose their head. But this is football. This has happened. Now we need to enjoy because we won the tournament.”
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said he missed the altercation because he was congratulating Paris Saint-Germain’s players.
PSG was trying to conclude a historic season with another honor, after they won the French league, the French Cup, the French Super Cup and the club’s first-ever UEFA Champions League title in late May.
It was evident, from very early on, that Chelsea was a real threat to unseat Paris Saint-Germain’s string of successes. Just seven-and-a-half minutes into the match, midfielder Cole Palmer hooked a left-footed shot that just slid past the left post.
By the half-hour mark, Palmer would have a pair of goals, and Chelsea would be hammering PSG on its half, smothering it with relentless pressure.
“Well, this is how soccer is sometimes,” Enrique said in French. “I’ll need to review the film to comprehensively analyze what happened, but they started the match very well, with aggressive pressure and we had difficulty matching that. From there, we had a few chances to score, but it was not in the cards.”