Cagliari coach Walter Mazzarri is known for his inventive excuses, but he reached a new level today by claiming his team was put off by the referee’s injury.
The Serie A trip to Empoli ended 1-1 at the Stadio Castellani this afternoon, with Leonardo Pavoletti scoring late on to cancel out the Andrea Pinamonti opener.
Play was halted for several minutes early into the game when referee Federico Dionisi picked up a calf injury and limped off.
He had to exchange places with fourth official Valerio Marini, which involved unstrapping and re-applying all the equipment that allows him to communicate with the VAR booth as well as his assistants.
“The stop in play due to the referee’s injury interrupted a good period for us,” Mazzarri told DAZN.
“We also had an injury that messed up our plans, so we are frankly fortunate the first half ended only 1-0. We dominated the second half and unfortunately I had already lost one slot for the substitutions.”
.@CagliariCalcio I Le dichiarazioni di Walter #Mazzarri al termine di #EmpoliCagliari https://t.co/m6DIaJ4PJg
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) February 13, 2022