France’s midfielder Paul Pogba accused German defender of nibbling him on the shoulder during their opening match of Euro 2020. The incident happened just before half-time when Rudiger put his face close to Pogba’s back before putting his hands on the Frenchman’s chest.
Pogba was not impressed with the same and complained about it to the referee. However, the lanky player said he doesn’t want Rudiger to face any punishment regarding his actions.
“I’m not crying for cards, yellow, red cards because of such actions,” Pogba said after the match. “He nibbled, I think, a little bit on me. But we have known each other for a long time. “I told the referee and he made the decision. It’s over. “It was a great match for us … and I didn’t want him to be suspended because of such a situation. It was towards the end of the match. We hugged each other and that’s it.”
France were able to win the match as Mat Hummels scored an own goal in the 20th minute of the game. The German defender got into an awkward position and ended up scoring in his own net.
In fact, Germany dominated possession by 62% but could not create a lot of chances. The second was much better for the Germans but France’s goalkeeper Hugo Lloris didn’t have to do a lot of work during the game.
French coach Didier Deschamps was not impressed with his team’s possession of 38% but he was happy with three points and the win.
“I wouldn’t say that we did dominate them because we played against a good team in Germany who caused us problems,” Deschamps said.
“They had a lot of ball possession, more than us. We were defending very well. It was a match played on a very high level, two titans facing each other.
“We could have done things better, especially in ball possession, and looking at the attitude to show this dominance, to suffer all together, when we showed this commitment on the pitch today against the very strong German side.”