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 when the score was 4-2. Neto nudged a ball boy to the turf while he tried to retrieve the ball to get play restarted quickly at a throw-in.

The ball boy fell to the ground, hitting the advertising hoardings and clutching his chest. And the incident sparked a mass 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.”

Rosenior was also defiant despite the Londoners facing a three-goal deficit at Stamford Bridge. The Blues boss declared: “The disappointing one, you never want to lose a game but the fifth goal in that moment, after a flashpoint… we don’t keep our heads in that moment. We don’t keep our cool. They break our press and score a fifth goal.

“It makes it very difficult to come back from but it’s not impossible. We’ve seen it happen before. We don’t give up. We know we have to come up with a really strong plan to get ourselves back in the tie. That’s why it’s so disappointing. A lot of the good of the first 74 minutes will be forgotten because of our 15 or 20 minutes of madness.”

Chelsea twice equalised away at PSG before the hosts’ three late goals gave them a commanding lead halfway through the tie. Bradley Barcola’s opener was cancelled out by Malo Gusto before Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele’s excellent goal restored the French giants’ lead.

Enzo Fernandez made it 2-2 before the hour mark but Vitinha again put the home side in front. Joao Pedro had a third equaliser chalked off for offside before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s late brace from the bench put last season’s European Cup winners in a strong position heading to London next Tuesday.