Beleaguered Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery insisted there was no shame in losing to Real Madrid after the expensively-assembled French side crashed out of the Champions League at the hands of the holders, AFP reports.
“To be eliminated in the last 16 is a disappointment, but to lose against Real Madrid is not. They deserved to go through. There is no other analysis,” said the Spaniard whose side, shorn of the injured Neymar, lost 2-1 in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Casemiro scored the goals for Real in the second half, either side of Edinson Cavani’s scrambled effort for the hosts.
The defeat condemned PSG – who had Marco Verratti sent off in the second half –to a 5-2 aggregate loss, the second season running in which they have been knocked out in the last 16 after the humiliating loss against Barcelona a year ago.
“The objective was the Champions League. Now is not the time to think about the future,” said Emery, who is out of contract at the end of this season.
PSG have still not made it past the quarter-finals of the Champions League since Qatar Sports Investments bought the club in 2011 and started to lavish huge sums of money on players.
They took their spending spree to a whole new level last year, spending a world-record 222m euros to sign Neymar from Barcelona and committing 180 million euros to sign Kylian Mbappe from Monaco.
Once again they have fallen short, but despite the crushing nature of another premature exit from Europe, Emery believes the Qatar-backed club will eventually go all the way in the Champions League, even if it is without him at the helm.
