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Newcastle player sees international match abandoned after pitch invasion

7 years ago
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An interesting international break for Newcastle midfielder Henri Saivet.

Monday saw the player who is on loan at St Etienne for the season, representing Senegal.

A friendly match against Ivory Coast taking place at the Charlety Stadium in Paris.

Senegal were actually disqualified from the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations when a riot led to a play-off between the sides ended up being abandoned after crowd trouble.

Yesterday though saw a number of min pitch invasions during the game, before the final one with two minutes to go saw the match abandoned.

People were seen scaling fences outside the stadium to gain access, only minutes before the final invasion of the pitch.

Sadio Mane had put Senegal ahead on 68 minutes and Cyriac equalised for Ivory Coast two minutes later.

When the final pitch invasion took place, one of those that got onto the pitch appeared to rugby tackle Senegal’s Lamine Gassama.

Henri Saivet and the rest of the players then ran from the pitch and referee Tony Chapron called an end to the match.

L’Equipe journalist Herve Penot was at the game and told the BBC World Service:

“I wouldn’t say the people were violent.

“It was much more about trying to be with the players, but you never know what can happen, the organisation was a disaster… it was incredible.

“After 20 or 30 minutes a couple of people were on the pitch.

“Then they couldn’t start the second-half because they had people on the pitch and the referee said if it happens again he will stop the game. It was very messy.”

No news as yet about whether St Etienne want to make the Henri Saivet loan into a permanent transfer, unlike the Florian Thauvin switch to Marseille, which meant that after three appearances a trigger clause means the deal is guaranteed to go through at the end of this year’s loan spell.

Henri Saivet has made 27 appearances for St Etienne so far this season and the club sit seventh in Ligue 1.

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