Lazio boss Maurizio Sarri strongly criticised referee Craig Pawson who sent off Patric in the first half against Cluj, saying the English referee is not worthy of European games.
The Biancocelesti secured a 1-0 win in the first leg of the Conference League play-offs at the Stadio Olimpico on Thursday thanks to a Ciro Immobile goal. However, they had to play almost the entire game down to 10 men because of a straight red card shown to their defender Patric after just 15 minutes.
Patric’s foul was 10-15 yards outside the penalty area with other Lazio defenders close to the ball, but Pawson still judged it to be a clear scoring opportunity. Safe to say Sarri didn’t agree with the English referee.
“The only thing I can say is that it’s unthinkable that he officiates at a European level,” Sarri told DAZN as quoted by TMW.
“Immobile scored a difficult goal, but it’s the house special. I hope it will contribute to getting some fog out of his head. On a night when everything seemed to be going in the wrong direction, we obtained an acceptable result.”
Sarri continued to blame Pawson during his post-match press conference. “This is a referee who can’t go around Europe to officiate games, he’s absolutely unfit. He altered the game with a red card which wasn’t a clear scoring opportunity and continued with some shocking yellow cards. I hope he is just a poor referee.”
The Biancocelesti will play the second leg away next week. They are playing in the Conference League after being dropped from Europa League, finishing third in their group.