Jose Mourinho criticises VAR for giving Lazio a ‘penalty suited to modern football’ in the Coppa Italia quarter-final, but also admits ‘it all changes’ for Roma when Paulo Dybala is injured.
Much like the Serie A fixture that ended goalless, there were precious few scoring opportunities, but the tie was this time decided by a Mattia Zaccagni penalty.
Dean Huijsen in his first start since the loan move from Juventus was late getting to a clearance and caught Taty Castellanos on the back of the ankle.
“It is always painful to lose the derby. We have real difficulties, we fight constantly against them and in the last few games we did very well against Napoli, deserved more with Juventus and Atalanta,” Mourinho told Mediaset.
“Today we lost to what I will call a penalty suited to modern football, one that the referee does not give when he is three metres away and VAR does. This is how the referees are told to act, 20-30 years ago players would never go down the way they do here.
“A penalty ought to be seen as the maximum punishment. The referee was right there and decided not to give the penalty, but when there is someone in front of a screen that calls him for a minimal contact and the player puts on a show following that contact, there’s not much he can do.
“I don’t want to say it is not a penalty, but this is the situation.”
It was a rather even first half, but Dybala went off at the break to be replaced by Lorenzo Pellegrini and there are now bound to be doubts for the upcoming Serie A clash with Milan.
“I felt that in the first half we were the team with the most character, set out well, but when you lose Dybala, it all changes. It’s what happened against Fiorentina, a game we felt that we could win easily. Without Paulo, there is no connection between attack and defence, while the quality level drops.
“It is the usual muscular problem behind the leg. He had 80 minutes in a very physical game at the weekend, he needed more time to recover. He wanted to play, we needed his contribution and there are others who are playing beyond their limitations, for example Gianluca Mancini who hasn’t trained for a month and takes anti-inflammatories.
“Pellegrini was not in great shape either, coming off a nasty knock to the back. I am a little disappointed with a few individuals, as we ought to do more. We work so hard to get the ball to the flanks and then don’t put the crosses in.”
It ended in chaos, as Pedro, Sardar Azmoun and after the final whistle Gianluca Mancini were all sent off, so those bans will be for the next Coppa Italia fixtures, as it is a different competition to Serie A.
“As well as being a modern penalty, it went against a top kid like Huijsen who has only 55 minutes of Serie A under his belt. The move before that was a throw-in, it’s not possible that we give away a throw-in like that leading to the corner and penalty.
“Historically, this is a top referee who analyses all aspects of the game, but when one team takes the lead then that’s the end of the match, because Orsato does not let us play.”
The Giallorossi have a very poor recent record in the Derby della Capitale, failing to score in 405 minutes of football against Lazio, during which they had just eight shots on target.
“We lost a derby, that weighs on us and these incredible fans, but we have to go forward. We finish this horrible run of fixtures on Sunday with Milan, for the first time in a long time we have a whole week to recover and hope to get more players back.”
Roma, Mourinho: "Rigore da calcio moderno, poi Orsato non ha fatto più giocare" https://t.co/gAVZUZnbIo
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