Benoît Bastien at the whistle, yellows and few reds
This Sunday, as part of the 4th day of Ligue 1 2022-2023, Paris Saint-Germain (1st) will face Monaco (5th) at the Parc des Princes (kick-off at 8:45 p.m., broadcast on Amazon Premier). The referee of the meeting has been chosen, it will be Benoit Bastien (39 years old). Which a big experience in Ligue 1, with 203 games.
The man with the whistle will be assisted by Hicham Zakrani and Aurélien Berthomieu. Gaël Angoula will be the fourth referee. Eric Wattellier and Cyril Gringore will officiate as video assistant referees.
With Mr. Bastien at the whistle, we can expect the yellow cards to be sent rather quickly, but without exaggeration during the meeting. Indeed, while the national average per game is 3.68 (standard deviation of 0.24), the referee on Saturday gave 3.92 yellow cards per game on average throughout his career in Ligue 1 (figures Transfermarkt). He is therefore relatively calm on this aspect.
On the other hand, the man with the whistle this Saturday is more severe on the exclusion side, since he has a higher than average tendency to distribute direct red cards. Indeed, Bastien is at 0.22 exclusion per game in his career while the national average per game is also 0.17 (standard deviation of 0.05). He is therefore rather the type not to avoid much, but rather to crack down very quickly.
Moreover, Benoit Bastien is in the average to exclude a player after his first yellow card, since he gave a second warning to the same player 0.08 times per match on average. Which is like the national average, which sits at 0.08. Finally, in terms of penalties, the man whistling on Saturday is still on average with 0.33 penalties whistled per game.