Mark Pougatch and Lee Dixon both laughed in surprise following Roy Keane's lenient assessment of PSG's performance against Real Madrid on.
Generally, Keane seems to have just one setting when it comes to criticism of teams who have underperformed: complete and utter scorn.
After spending €400 million on assembling a team of superstars, PSG were underwhelming on Tuesday night. On TV3's coverage of the game, Graeme Souness described them as "pathetic" adding that it was the type of lacklustre effort which will get their manager the sack.
Unexpectedly, Keane said the level of criticism aimed at the French side was unwarranted.
"Real Madrid always have that bit of quality. I think you're being a bit harsh on PSG," said Keane on ITV's Champions League highlights show. "I think you need a little bit of luck. [They were] missing their star man. It was always going to be a tough ask."
I think PSG have been a bit unlucky the last few years. I really do. They topped their group this year and who do they get? Real Madrid.
They were unlucky in the first leg, they had a mad five minutes. Neymar's missing, they have a man sent-off tonight. You need bits of luck in this competition. I wouldn't be too critical of PSG.
"This seems to be the new buzz word about having a go at teams. It's very difficult to have a go when you're up against real quality players and you can't get the ball back. It's Real Madrid, the champions of Europe - give them a break."
There was also a surprising lack of barb to Keane's analysis of Spurs' capitulation against Juventus.
"It was huge, it was huge tonight," said Keane about Spurs' inexperience of such games.
We'll obviously say that Juventus found a way to win but you could also look at it and say that Tottenham found a way to lose.
The experience was shown when Tottenham went 1-0 up and instead of killing the game and sitting back in... Tottenham really should have played like Juventus did when they went in front. Sitting back in, using their experience. The manager was right, three or four minutes of madness, poor defending has cost them. That's where the experience counts.
He also nodded in agree when Pougatch said that it's tough to gain experience until you've been through games like last night.
