Pedro Neto has issued an apology after pushing a PSG ball boy to the floor as Chelsea pushed for a late goal in their defeat away at PSG on Wednesday night. The Blues played well for much of the match at the Parc des Princes but fell victim to the class of the Champions League holders, who scored five brilliantly-taken goals to take a 5-2 lead into the second leg next week. But there was drama before full-time as Neto nudged a ball boy to the turf while he tried to get play restarted quickly at a throw-in.
The ball boy fell to the ground clutching his chest and the incident sparked a brawl with both sets of players shoving each other as tensions rose. Neto escaped without a card despite a VAR check to investigate whether or not the Portuguese winger should receive a red card. And Neto came out to TNT Sports after full-time to say: "I want to come out to say the situation that happened on the pitch, I want to apologise to the ball boy. I already spoke with him. With the emotions of the game, we were losing, I wanted to pick up the ball.
"He was carrying the ball with him and I gave him a little push and I saw that I hurt him. I'm sorry. I'm not like this. It was in the heat of the moment. I went over to apologise and I gave him my shirt as well. That cannot happen. I'm really, really sorry about that and I'm sorry to him."
Neto added: "I feel that I have to apologise to him. In the heat of the moment, you know how football is, you have a lot of emotions. I wanted to get the ball fast. I want to say sorry to him. He came to speak with me and he even laughed because he was happy I gave him the shirt.
"I said sorry like 35 times! I'm really sorry about that and the situation. I think he knew what happened as well so he was happy that at the end I told him sorry. I didn't understand French but he said something laughing as well. He knew it was the heat of the moment.
"Vitinha said to him as well that I'm not like that and things happen. The only thing that matters was that I was worried about him. I'm really sorry about the situation."
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior said: "I genuinely have not seen what happened. I heard there was an altercation with a ball boy and you never want to see that. I've just been told Pedro's apologised. I'll have to see it back and I'll speak about it in the days to come.
"Even in that moment, as a group, that's happened and we need to switch on to the next moment and make sure we see the game through. We didn't and we've been punished by a very good team."
On the result itself, Neto continued: "To be honest I think in the second half, at 2-2, we were in control of the game. Then the way we tried to play, we gave them the 3-2. Then an unbelievable goal outside of the box and then in the end we lose the ball trying to make passes [and it's 5-2]. We will fight with positivity to get the win at home and try to go through."