Udinese director Pierpaolo Marino accused Juventus chief Fabio Paratici of trying to ‘intimidate’ and ‘influence’ the referee during today’s game.

The Friulani had been leading 1-0 until a late comeback with a penalty for Rodrigo De Paul’s handling offence and Cristiano Ronaldo header.

Udinese director Pierpaolo Marino accused Juventus chief Fabio Paratici of trying to ‘intimidate’ and ‘influence’ the referee during today’s game.

The Friulani had been leading 1-0 until a late comeback with a penalty for Rodrigo De Paul’s handling offence and Cristiano Ronaldo header.

There were ugly scenes at half-time when Juve director Paratici was standing at the entrance to the players’ tunnel and filmed shouting at referee Daniele Chiffi.

He was protesting that the half-time whistle had been blown without any stoppages, but it seemed somewhat extreme, as well as part of a pattern of behaviour from Paratici this season.

“I am angry because my team put in a great performance and I am here to protect their hard work,” Marino told Sky Sport Italia.

“The Ronaldo free kick that led to the penalty should’ve been a free kick in Udinese’s favour instead. I am a veteran of football, so I’ve seen before those who cling to complaining over the lack of first half stoppages to intimidate the referee.

“Then after that, the referee can give a penalty for a free kick that was non-existent. It’s Juan Cuadrado who fouls Jens Stryger-Larsen, not the other way round.

“It was a blatant error and cannot be ignored. I believe the referee was influenced by this verbal assault on Chiffi at half-time by the Juve directors, staff, coaches and players.

“The way they were behaving, it was as if they’d lost because there weren’t 40 seconds of stoppages. This sort of thing belongs to a football of another era. I spoke out against it then and I’ll speak out against it now.”

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