Milan coach Stefano Pioli says referee Marco Serra apologised to Milan players after he cancelled out a late Junior Messias goal, seconds before Spezia‘s winner.
The Rossoneri suffered an incredible 2-1 defeat at San Siro, but have plenty of regrets.
The referee wrongly cancelled a late Messias goal awarding a free-kick for the Rossoneri before the former Crotone man found the net of the goal with a curler.
Milan players were furious and conceded a late Emmanuel Gyasi goal only a few seconds later.
The Rossoneri coach Pioli admitted that both his players and the referee are responsible for today’s result.
“I tried to calm my players down, but I didn’t manage as Spezia’s goal proves,” he told Dazn.
“We knew it was an injustice, we have ourselves to blame, but we share responsibility with the referee. I am sorry to say that. He even apologised, maybe that wasn’t even a fault. It’s a shame.
Serie A | Milan 1-2 Spezia: Rossoneri upset following late winner
“However, we should have scored more goals in the first half, it’s a bad night and we must react now.”
Theo Hernandez missed a penalty kick in the first half before Rafael Leao scored the opener.
“We could have won the game, somehow we lost and it’s heavy,” the coach continued. “We knew we had a good chance, Leao’s goal should have given us self confidence, we failed to seal a win that we strongly wanted, but the season is still long.”
The Rossoneri had to cope without three of their regulars in midfield. Franck Kessié and Ismael Bennacer are on AFCON duty, while and Sandro Tonali was suspended, so Rade Krunic and Tiemoue Bakayoo started in the middle of the park.
“Clearly, the characteristics are different,” explained Pioli.
“Bakayoko sat deeper with Krunic between the lines. It was something new, so it’s normal that the mechanism was not perfect. After such a loss, I believe that it’s essential to play big games against big opponents.
The Rossoneri will meet Juventus and Inter in the next two Serie A matches.
“We didn’t deserve to lose today, our mistake was to concede the equaliser, that’s where we must improve. This game will give us motivation for the next matches,” Pioli concluded.