Unai Emery’s decision to delay Julian Draxler’s introduction against Real Madrid left the Paris Saint-Germain star “angry”.
Julian Draxler has criticised Unai Emery for delaying his introduction to the Champions League round-of-16 second leg with Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Trailing the two-time defending champions 3-1 after the first leg, PSG knew they needed a big performance if they were to progress to the quarter-finals.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal early in the second half made that task even tougher at the Parc des Princes, but Emery nevertheless waited to bring on the Germany international.
Draxler was stripped and ready to enter the fray when Edinson Cavani levelled things up on the night, a goal that saw Emery delay his substitution for five minutes.
Eventually, Draxler replaced Angel Di Maria, but he was unable to turn the team’s fortunes around, PSG going on to lose 2-1 and exiting the competition 5-2 on aggregate.
“In that moment I was surprised and also a little angry,” Draxler told ZDF when asked about the change.
“Yes, the 1-1 was there. But that result would not have helped us in the end at all. That’s why I thought we should keep pushing and play more offensively.
“I suffered a lot on the bench. Overall that was way too little by us. It is hard to accept we were eliminated so easily.
“Everybody inside the stadium sensed that we would not turn this around because we were lacking intensity. In the end, Real Madrid played it comfortably. There were not nervous even a little.”
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