Ivan Juric was bemused by the VAR intervention to disallow Andrea Belotti’s late equaliser, but congratulated Venezia for the tactical switch that really made the difference.
The Granata had started very strong and took the lead after five minutes through Josip Brekalo, but a tactical adjustment from the Lagunari changed the flow of the game.
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“The first 20 minutes were excellent, then Venezia changed to 3-4-3 and immediately punted it forward, so at those moments we had to hold out. We suffered in that period, conceded straight after the restart, the lads gave everything and just lacked sharpness in some situations,” Juric told Sky Sport Italia.
“Venezia sat back very deep after taking the lead. They were very aggressive for 20 minutes and we struggled to create chances, having a lot of pressure and corners and set plays, but couldn’t score the goal. It was a battle, it was decided on incidents, congratulations to Venezia.”
Ridgeciano Haps and Domen Crnigoj turned it around with two goals, but the drama continued to the 104th minute.
VAR intervened twice, urging referee Antonio Giua to check the on-field review first for a Tommaso Pobega offside position on Andrea Belotti’s equaliser, then to send off Venezia striker David Okereke.
There is immense confusion around the incidents, as Pobega was accused of interfering with play by blocking Mattia Caldara on the Brekalo free kick.
“At times it’s difficult to comment. Sassuolo scored against us with a throw-in that was a good 15 metres ahead of where the ball had gone out of play. If this is offside…
“I don’t think it was a block. He was behind him. These are difficult to explain and once they call the referee to look, you know it’s going to change.”
As for the red card, initially the referee had booked Karol Linetty, but then sent off Okereke instead for a stamp on Linetty, even though it seemed to be unintentional.
“It might seem stupid, but my players gave their all, we’ve been really unlucky lately and maybe we need more determination and character, because we’ve dropped points too many times when we thought we’d done enough.”
Now that Belotti is back, will he be used along with Antonio Sanabria upfront?
“Absolutely not. They are two very similar strikers, both centre-forwards, we end up being very flat with them together. It never worked in training either, so I don’t see them that way,” insisted Juric.
“Belotti had two training sessions with the team after 70-odd days out, it takes time. The important thing is that he gets into shape physically.”