Marquinhos, the 30-year-old central defender and captain of Paris Saint-Germain, spoke to Canal+ after the 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich (see video summary) on Tuesday at the Allianz Arena, as part of matchday 5 of the Champions League 2024-2025 league phase. He spoke of the refereeing, which he felt was unfair, the defeat, the positives and the worries.
Marquinhos “All the doubts were in Bayern’s favor.”
What’s your version of the conceded goal?
I asked the referee what was going on because a player blocked it and didn’t play the ball. After that, it’s difficult if a player blocks it and doesn’t play the ball at all, the goalkeeper can’t do anything. He tried to get out and clear the ball and we didn’t succeed.
We know that corners are very important in a match, especially in a match like this. Last year we got trapped against Dortmund on a corner, and again today.
We don’t like to talk about the refereeing, it was really difficult against us and it didn’t make our task any easier. All the doubts were in Bayern’s favor on the goal, as we said, there was someone blocking the keeper completely. He made his decision, he didn’t give a foul.
Marquinhos “We got better as the game went on.”
What did PSG lose on?
I think they were physically closer than us in the fight. We got better as the match went on in the duels and we managed to take a few counter-attacks in transition.
They’re a team that’s going to press and we tried to create space at the back of their midfield. In the first half it was a tight game and we tried to press with our philosophy.
We took a few too many risks. We changed in the second half, when he brought on Hakimi and I played more with Kingsley. I had to manage depth better. With the red it was really difficult for us.
Marquinhos “If you look at the standings, you’re worried. It’s normal.”
Are you worried?
If you look at the standings we’re worried. That’s normal. We don’t know what’s going to happen, there are 3 games to play in three finals. We’ve got a home game against City, who are a great team.
Two away games to get as many points as possible. It’s our aim to qualify, we didn’t come here to stay behind, we tried to play our game and we tried to win this match. Even with 10 men, we pressed and tried to score.