Roma director Tiago Pinto won’t confirm if Lorenzo Pellegrini’s new contract is close, but reiterates the club was ‘damaged’ by refereeing decisions in Serie A.
The Europa Conference League game with Zorya Luhask kicks off in Ukraine at 17.45 UK time (16.45 GMT).
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Captain Pellegrini was suspended against Lazio, but returns today in the starting XI, with reports his new contract is almost ready to be signed.
“I have always said that the club and the player have the same desire to get this done,” Tiago Pinto told Sky Sport Italia.
“He is the captain, he is focused and we need to talk about the game rather than the future right now.”
However, the director was more than happy to devote much of his pre-match interview to discussing the controversy from Pellegrini’s ban and the defeat to arch-rivals Lazio in Serie A, which Jose Mourinho blamed squarely on the referee.
“Roma do not hide from results, but we saw very different refereeing criteria in the last two games for similar incidents, and that means Roma were damaged.
“We are not trying to create some sort of warfare or chaos, we want to respect the institutions, but we were left angry by the different approach to similar incidents against Udinese and Lazio. We simply wanted to raise the issue and make it known.”