Genton: I Was Lucky To Stay On Against Marseille

Saturday evening’s match between Olympique Marseille and Lorient was a fixture littered with controversial refereeing decisions. The home side had a perfectly good goal, which would have put them 3-0 up, disallowed for offside and then, in stoppage time, had a chance for an equaliser waved off due to a similar error.

But all the decisions did not go Lorient’s way. On the hour mark, as Mamadou Niang threatened to break through on goal, Benjamin Genton stretched out his leg in an effort to make a desperate tackle. No contact with the ball was made and the Senegalese player clattered to the ground. After consultation with his assistant, referee Chapron elected to award the penalty, although the offence was clearly outside the box.

Les Merlus’ defender today admitted that he felt lucky to remain on the field after his misjudged tackle. “There was a moment where I was floating for five seconds while the referee asked his assistant if it was a penalty or not,” Genton explained to radio station RMC, “I think he simply forgot to punish me but I thought I was going to have to take a red card.”

The refereeing errors however did not detract from a fantastic game of football, which seemed to be in Marseille’s possession as they led 2-0 with 15 minutes remaining. A stirring comeback from Lorient saw the Breton side score three times in the closing stages to steal a most unlikely victory from the hosts.

Robin Bairner