Davide Calabria explains why he was so furious with the referee after the final whistle of Milan’s Champions League win against Napoli. ‘He told us all game there were VAR problems and I am the captain.’
The Rossoneri won the match 1-0 thanks to an Ismael Bennacer goal after a counter-attack from Brahim Diaz and Rafael Leao.
Referee Istvan Kovacs infuriated both teams at San Siro, because he sent off Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa for two bookable offences and gave a yellow card for dissent to Kim Min-jae that suspends the South Korea international for the second leg on April 18.
However, Alexis Saelemaekers had penalty appeals waved away in stoppages for a collision with Stanislav Lobotka and at the final whistle Calabria was visibly furious, shown a yellow card.
He spoke to Amazon Prime Video to reveal what happened in that odd incident.
“The referee kept calling me and Di Lorenzo over all game because there were problems with the VAR, which was working and not working. I asked for an explanation and the fourth official pushed me away.
“I don’t understand why I was not allowed to talk, as I am the captain. I was even booked and I think that card is completely stupid. If I cannot talk to the referee as captain, then who can?
“Look, I don’t want to keep talking about this, it feels pointless.”
There was a moment during the match when play was halted as the referee had his radio mic adjusted, and he did call Di Lorenzo and Calabria over several times.