Mauricio Pochettino defended his decision to bench Lionel Messi in Sunday’s Ligue 1 match against Lyon, as the former Barcelona star made his home debut. Messi was sensational in the first half at Parc des Princes, but he faded after the break and was substituted by Achraf Hakimi for the final quarter of an hour, with the score at 1-1.
Mauro Icardi scored a stoppage-time header to give PSG a 2-1 victory.
“Everyone knows we have a great team of 35 players. It’s entirely up to me. At any given time, we can only have 11 players on the field “Pochettino stated the following.
“Like every coach, I just consider the best decision in each game, for each player.” We’ve come to make choices. People will be pleased with them at times, and dissatisfied at other times.”
As he walked by his coach and towards the Paris bench, Messi appeared to reject Pochettino’s hand.
“I asked him how he was and he replied he was good,” Pochettino said when asked if the six-time Ballon d’Or winner was unhappy.
Messi is yet to score in a PSG shirt, despite hitting the crossbar with a free-kick in the first half.