Julian Draxler has admitted he is furious at Paris Saint-Germain boss Unai Emery following their exit from the Champions League.
The Ligue 1 leaders lost 2-1 in the second leg of their last-16 clash against Real Madrid, as goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Casemiro were enough to seal a 5-2 aggregate win for Real.
The Germany international was set to be introduced earlier, but Edinson Cavani made it 1-1 on the night in the 71st minute.
Draxler slammed his coach Emery for deciding not to bring him on at that stage but instead held back despite needing two more goals to equal the aggregate.
“It was insensitive, ” he said of Emery’s decision. “I didn’t know what was going on. I was surprised and angry.
“The goal for 1-1 went in but it did not change anything for us. I felt we needed to keep pressing and playing offensively.
“We lost a man, and even though we got it to 1-1 the whole stadium knew the game would not turn around because we didn’t have the intensity on the pitch.
“Real Madrid played it out confidently and were not nervous at all.”
The defeat makes it the second time in two seasons that PSG have exited the competition at the last 16 stage, and Draxler did not hold back his criticism of Emery.
“We played the ball back and forth but you cannot score just doing that.
“You have to put pressure on Real Madrid when you are 3-1 down, not just pass it back and forth and hope something falls for you.
“We needed to put pressure on the opponents right from the start. We didn’t do that so we deserved to be eliminated.”
“In the summer we spent €400m and everyone was talking about how it was going to change things, but we have failed to get through this round again.
“I am still convinced this team has a lot to give, but you can see in games like this that there is still something missing if we want to win the big trophy.
“That should make us think again.”
