Referee admits mistake

Lyon fought back from two-goals down against Nice and the match looked to be heading for a draw until Jean-Charles Cailleux judged Vincent Hognon to have handled the ball in the area four minutes into stoppage time and Karim Benzema slotted home the winner from the spot.

Cailleux also handed Cyril Rool a straight red card for protesting but has now admitted his blunder after seeing the incident on television.

"The Nice defender, Hognon, came into contact with the ball with his hand in the six-yard box level with the assistant referee, something which I didn't see," he explained to radio station RTL.

"The assistant referee, in his spirit and conscience, believed that the handball was voluntary and because he was better placed than me, I followed his decision and consequently awarded a penalty.

"When I saw the television footage there was definitely contact with the hand, certainly, but involuntary, consequently we shouldn't have blown for this foul and the penalty shouldn't have been awarded."

However, Cailleux believes Lyon's first two goals - which were also heavily contested by Nice - were fair.

Lyon looked to be heading for their first defeat of the season before Juninho got them back into the game with two free-kicks, each of which led to fierce protests from the visitors.

Nice believed the captain's first should never have been awarded while they claimed that Frederic Piquionne was in on offside position when Juninho struck his second, but Cailleux is standing by those decisions.

"There was a slight contact (in the first incident) and there are a lot of fouls like that in a match, people wouldn't talk about it if it hadn't led to a goal," he added.

"(In the second incident) there were no Lyon players in an offside position when the ball was struck.

"Yes, my assistant lifted his flag but I asked him to lower it. I believed, wrongly or rightly, that Piquionne was in a passive offside position."