Paris Saint-Germain were hamstrung by Sergio Ramos’ moment of madness as they toiled to a 0-0 draw with Reims in Ligue 1.
Paris Saint-Germain boss Christophe Galtier confirmed a common Spanish insult was the cause of Sergio Ramos’ bizarre red card against Reims, as he claimed referee Pierre Gaillouste failed to control the contest.
Ligue 1 leaders PSG dropped points for the second time this season in a 0-0 draw at Reims on Saturday, failing to break through against their struggling hosts following Ramos’ red card.
Ramos received two yellow cards in less than a minute shortly before the break when he flashed a big smile at the referee after tripping Marshall Munetsi.
The Spaniard’s dismissal was the 21st of his league career (in LaLiga and Ligue 1) – at least seven more than any other defender in Europe’s top five leagues has received this century.
Speaking after the draw that left PSG three points clear of Marseille at the summit, Galtier stressed his belief that Ramos had no intention of offending Gaillouste.
“I know Sergio Ramos very well, I’m not sure if the insult that came out was directed at the referee,” Galtier said.
“It’s an insult that you hear all the time on the training pitch, that you hear a lot in Spain. The referee took it from him and kicked him off, I’m not going to go back to that.”
PSG faced 24 shots against Reims, the most they have faced in a Ligue 1 game since December 2011 (against Saint Etienne), and Galtier was unhappy with their performance.
“There was a lot of nervousness, which I can’t explain, on both sides,” Galtier added. “There were a lot of duels, clashes, neither of the two teams managed the action.
“None of the three sides, the teams and the referees, were in control of this game and there was a lot of nervousness.
Gaillouste has handed out six red cards in the six Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches he has taken charge of this season (four in Metz vs Guingamp, one in Nantes vs PSG and one in this game).
Although Galtier disagreed with the decision to send Ramos off, he was still annoyed by the “stupid” nature of his red card, especially given that Ramos will now miss next week’s meeting with Marseille.
“I will talk to them about it because there are sequences of matches. We need the maximum number of players,” Galtier added. “We’re missing games because we took stupid cards… of course we have to fix that. I’ll talk to them about it.”
PSG have lost just one of their last nine Ligue 1 matches in which they have received a red card and finished against 11 men (W4 D4), a 5-1 defeat at Lille in April 2019.