French publication L'Equipe have apologised to Paris Saint-Germain, as well as midfield duo Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi, for inaccurate recent claims about the pair.
In the aftermath of PSG's shocking 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Barcelona in the Champions League, the Italy and France internationals were reported to have been partying in a nightclub hours before the team departed for Catalonia.
Verratti's agent Donato Di Campli immediately defended his client, while the Italy star later confirmed he was taking action against L'Equipe.
In a communique titled "to our readers," as well as on the show L'Equipe Type, the publication presented "its apologies for recently publishing false information" before detailing their inaccurate claims.
"On last March 9, during L'Equipe Type, we claimed PSG players Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi were in a nightclub two days before the second leg of the Champions League clash against Barcelona," the statement read.
Excuses acceptées, sans rancunes 👍🔴🔵
A post shared by Marco Verratti (@marco_verratti92) on
"The next day, this information appeared in the printed and on the online editions of L'Equipe.
"Today, we know for certain that this information is false and was given to us by external sources with bad intentions. We would like to apologise.
"We also apologise to gentlemen Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi for our wrongdoing against them, as well as their club and employer Paris Saint-Germain."
L'Equipe then went on to express their desire to avoid such instances in the future and reveal that internal action could be taken.
"This failure on our part will lead us to reconsider how we function internally in order to continue to give you information of a high quality."
Verratti later publicly accepted the apology, saying in an Instagram post: "Excuses accepted, no grudges."