PSG coach Luis Enrique denies Pedro shove: Everyone involved

Luis Enrique said he was trying to separate players during a post-match brawl at the end of Paris Saint-Germain’s Club World Cup final defeat against Chelsea after footage appeared to show the him pushing João Pedro to the ground.

Chelsea’s 3-0 win ended with bad tempered scenes following an 86th minute red card shown to PSG’s João Neves for pulling the hair of Blues defender Marc Cucurella and the two sets of players clashed at the final whistle.

Pedro, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Achraf Hakimi were all involved in a confrontation before Luis Enrique seemed to push the Chelsea forward in the face. But the former Barcelona coach said that while the scenes were “not what was best,” he said that he was attempting to calm the situation.

“I have no problem expressing my feeling at the end of the game in a high level of pressure,” he told reporters. “It’s very stressful for all of us. It is going to be impossible to avoid that.

“Everybody was involved. It was not what was best and the end result of the pressure of the match.

“I have seen [Chelsea coach Enzo] Maresca. I saw he had pushed others and we had to separate all the players and I do not know where that pressure came from.

“But this is a situation we must all avoid. That goes without saying. My intention is that I wanted to separate the footballers, so the situations didn’t become worse.”

After falling to a surprise defeat, which denied PSG the chance to add a world title tot their Champions League crown, Luis Enrique said his team were not “losers.”

“We are not losers, there are no losers,” he said. “We are the runners-up. A loser is somebody who gives up. In this high level of sport there are no losers whatsoever.”

Luis Enrique and PSG will get some needed time off with the conclusion of the Club World Cup. They return to action on the weekend of Aug. 17 when Ligue 1 play resumes.