Kjaer critical of officials after Rennes game but positive about Milan’s UEL chances

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan defender Simon Kjaer couldn’t help but send some criticism towards the referee after he gave away a penalty during the 3-2 defeat against Rennes in the Europa League.

Milan were in command after the 3-0 first leg win and at half-time on the night in Brittany they were in good shape too, with Benjamin Bourigeaud’s early strike cancelled out by Luka Jovic’s header to make it 1-1.

However, the hosts began to believe once again when they were awarded a spot kick in the 54th minute when Kjaer attempted to get the ball ahead of Terrier but brought him down, and Bourigeaud scored from the spot.

Rafael Leao would equalise again to make it 2-2 on the night and reopen the three-goal aggregate lead, and while Bourigeaud scored again from the spot it was ultimately too little too late for Julien Stephan’s men.

Kjaer spoke to Sky at the end of the game to reflect on what was a difficult evening in the end but ultimately an aggregate win despite losing on the night. His words were relayed by MilanNews.

How do you think the game went?

“We were aware that they could start well, but we could have closed it out in the first half, we had the opportunity to take the lead 2-3 times. We managed the first 15 minutes well, then the referee started to decide things.

“First time in my career I heard a referee who after 10 minutes said that we had to start again quickly with Maignan. The important thing is that we achieved qualification.”

Pioli says that Milan must always score one more goal…

“On that we must take advantage of the opportunities we create, today we had many.”

What are the ambitions in Europe?

“We have to face any team to win [the competition]. Any team there is we can beat. We have a strong team and we are fine.”

   

Tags AC Milan Rennes Milan Simon Kjaer

11 Comments

    1. super soft penalty as the player even fell long after the supposed error just as the second one was as well, my prediction on the future game of football is that all players will be armless genetically modified people 😛

        1. yeah if anything i think he probably did the best in our defense today he cleared a lot of balls by heading them out of harms way in the second half and didnt look shaky as i percieve it and that penalty was indeed a dive by the rennes player.

      1. I don’t disagree, but don’t put yourself in the ref’s hand to have to make that decision. They will always give that one. Always.

        1. That is absolutely not true. This was a poor referee. He was turning from that action when he just saw the player diving and then showed the penalty spot. That should have been a yellow card for simulation and a slightly better referee would have shown it to the Rennes player without even relying on VAR.

  1. We have a mediocre backline, with only one real top CB in Tomori. And our midfield cannot seem to give much coverage to the defense. Complain as much as we want against the referees, it won’t change the facts

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