Stefano Pioli ‘told the referee what I thought of him’ after the decision that ruined the game with Chelsea, but insists Milan can qualify for the Champions League Round of 16. ‘Our destiny is in our hands.’
The coach was visibly furious as he walked over to German referee Daniel Siebert at the final whistle and protested over decisions that completely transformed the game.
“The game had just started and I had the feeling we were doing well. The red card and penalty changed the game, against a team that was already strong and did not need to have an extra man too,” Pioli told Mediaset Infinity.
“We had the chances to get back into it. This is a pity, we had the feeling we could really have our say this evening.”
After just 18 minutes, he both awarded a soft penalty and gave a red card to Fikayo Tomori, who had twice touched Mason Mount’s shoulder and let go, considered to be preventing a clear scoring opportunity.
Jorginho converted and it was never the same match after that, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finishing off a Mount slide-rule pass.
“I don’t need to see the replay, it was too easy to judge that incident. I told the referee what I thought of him after the match. My English isn’t exactly fluent, but I think he got the general idea…”
It was far from a violent match, yet the referee flashed a total of nine yellow cards and one red, in a game with only 30 fouls.
“It’s a negative result, but our destiny remains in our hands. If we want to be competitive in Europe too, we need to win the next two, and we have every chance of doing that. Now let’s dive back into Serie A, with a difficult match against a side that is changing coach. We need to recoup our energy.”
All is not lost, as Chelsea are top of the group on seven points, followed by RB Salzburg on six, Milan and Dinamo Zagreb four.
“We absolutely have to believe in our chances of qualifying. We must go to Zagreb to play our football, then welcome Salzburg here at San Siro.
“It’s a pity we were not given the opportunity to reward the crowd with a good performance this evening. We paid a very heavy price for one incident.
“If we were able to keep this game in the balance in the circumstances, much of the credit goes to our fans.”
As a professional, he shouldn’t have gone and spoken to an amateur.
Pioli. I never see a coach down 1 mam and losing 1-0 and waited forever to put another defender. Again the coach screwed it up. Big time
Maldini gets what he deserves.