The action of the disallowed goal by Genaro in Huesca marked the press conference of the French player. “It’s a play that penalises us. It may or may not have been a goal, but the problem is that we don’t know the rules very well. The play is very similar to that of Mbappé, more or less the same, and in the end the referee's decision goes. For me it’s a goal. The player didn’t even see me, it’s different from a dispute. And neither did the Huesca players protest the action,” said Peybernes.
“We spoke to the ref to find out what happened. We don’t know when it’s offside or not. It’s tricky, and there are no clear explanations about the play either,” said the player who feels conditioned on certain plays. “If a ball comes to me, I miss the clearance, and a striker comes and scores a goal… Is it better not to touch it? You have to clarify the situations. If Mbappé's goal is valid, why is ours not,” he added.
The feeling at El Alcoraz was evident. “We were clear on the pitch. The moment an opponent touches the ball, the offside is cancelled. Everyone was clear on the field of play. The decision belongs to the people who were watching the action on the VAR, not the referee,” Peybernes stated.
On the day of his 31st birthday, the player regrets not winning in Huesca. “It was a game we went out there to win. We played a good second half, did all we could to clinch victory, generated lots of chances, and in the end we feel like we lost out on two points. However, we needn’t drive ourselves crazy with the action, we’ve got another home game coming up that we’re determined to win.”
Talking about Lugo, he said “we must face each match with the same enthusiasm. We have to make the most of the point we won in Huesca, we played very well, and be strong at home. It’s always different playing against a team where you have friends, but for 90 minutes there are no friends. We’re raring to go, we’ve had three back-to-back draws and now we want three points. Saturday’s a great opportunity to do that.”
Lastly, to end the subject of Genaro’s controversial ‘no goal’, Peybernes was concise: “We have to communicate with each other. It’s difficult to referee a match and the VAR is there to help. Between us all we have to help each other to grow in that sense so there’s not such a huge controversy as this. We have to be clear about the rules, both the players and the referees.”
