By Fernando Kallas and Amy Tennery
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (Reuters) -Paris St Germain manager Luis Enrique tried to play down shoving Chelsea forward Joao Pedro in a near brawl between players and coaching staff following Chelsea’s dominating 3-0 win in the Club World Cup final on Sunday.
The incident erupted when PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was arguing with Joao Pedro, before Luis Enrique appeared to raise his hands to the Brazilian’s face.
Joao Pedro hit the deck and the PSG manager was quietly escorted away in remarkable scenes that saw players from both sides clash.
“At the end of the match, there was a situation that I believe could have been avoided by everyone,” Luis Enrique said at a press conference after the match.
“My objective and my intention, as always, is to try to win over the players so that there are no more problems. Internally, there is a lot of tension, a lot of pressure.”
The Spanish coach acknowledged the severity of the incident, adding: “And from there, there is a series of shoves from a lot of people, which I think we should all avoid and which should not happen again.”
When it came to the match, however, he was left without answers after a brutal thrashing by Chelsea in a clash of European football’s most powerful and richest clubs.
It was a surprise lopsided affair as Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer poured in two goals in eight minutes in the first half and assisted striker Joao Pedro in another score before the break.
Fans expected much more from the European Cup and French league champions that had once appeared unstoppable, cruising past Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-final stage of the expanded, 32-team tournament.
They finished the match with 10 men after Joao Neves was shown a red card in the 85th minute for violent conduct.
“Football – that’s the way it is. Can’t explain everything,” said Luis Enrique.
“I believe they actually started the game really, really well with a lot of pressure and we gave them a hard time. And then after that I believe they had opportunities to score but it didn’t happen.”
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas and Amy Tennery in East Rutherford, New Jersey; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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