Leonardo Jardim blames officials after 10-man Monaco let lead slip

Jardim had seen his side dominate large spells of their Ligue 1 clash at Stade Louis II and they led courtesy of a Mario Pasalic header.

But, after Fautrel showed a straight red card to Monaco defender Wallace with 25 minutes remaining, Lyon came back into the game and rescued a 1-1 draw through Rafael's late equaliser.

The result means Monaco are still yet to win a home league game this season but instead of placing any blame on his players for not finishing off Lyon while they were on top, Jardim - who also felt Lyon's Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa could have been dismissed - focused his attention on the officials.

"It was not a stupid foul by Wallace. It was a foul, but not an act of aggression," the Portugese said after the match.

"Monaco played very well and the referee was at fault twice. He did not give the second (yellow) card to our opponent and he gave the red (to Wallace) - that changed everything.

"I am certain it was not a red. It was a yellow card at most. I congratulated my players. The problem was playing with 10. My problem is that I respect everyone. Monaco is a nice club, everyone does the same."

After answering the question, Jardim walked out of his press conference.

His side now lie 10th in the table, nine points adrift of leaders Paris Saint-Germain who have a game in hand.

Lyon had dealt with a sustained period of pressure in the opening stages before Pasalic put the hosts ahead six minutes before half-time.

And, after a slow start and a first half largely spent on the back foot, Lyon coach Hubert Fournier was pleased to leave the principality with a point.

"We had a good reaction in the second half," he said.

"This is a positive point and we even had opportunities to get the win - but here were individual and collective shortcomings.

"The regret is that in the first half there was a lack of enthusiasm and dynamism and a slow pace. We were very far from each other on the pitch.

"There was a lack of dynamism and the intensity was too low. We also knew that Monaco score over 50 per cent of their goals from set-pieces."

Lyon pushed on after Wallace's red card and it was his fellow Brazilian Rafael who popped up to score a late equaliser.

The former Manchester United full-back just managed to stay onside before collecting the ball and coolly slotting home to move his side up to seventh in the table ahead of the rest of the weekend's Ligue 1 fixtures.