AC Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali has described the refereeing display against Chelsea in the Champions League as ‘ridiculous’ and ’embarrassing’.
Tonali was speaking to Sky Sport Italia (via Football Italia) after the match on Tuesday night when he was shown a replay of Fikayo Tomori’s challenge on Mason Mount which led to the penalty and sending-off.
He did not hold back in his comments on Daniel Siebert’s refereeing display in the Group E clash which ended 2-0 to Chelsea thanks to the goals from Jorginho and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
“There are so many incidents like that during a game. When you give a penalty and a red card after 18 minutes, for a touch like that,” Tonali said.
He focused on the first half alone at one stage and talked about the ‘ridiculous’ decisions that were made by the German referee.
“We may as well make it basketball where any touch is a foul. It felt like that anyway, we had several yellow cards for ridiculous, embarrassing free kicks in the first half alone.”
The penalty and red card in the 18th minute meant that the contest was over before it had really gotten underway and Milan did well to keep the score down.
Despite that, Tonali explained that the Rossonero tried to show pride and passion during the game.
“Anyway, we have to look at the rest of the game. We tried to play with pride and passion, even if it was very difficult in the circumstances,” he said.
“It’s disappointing for all the fans who came here tonight, packed the stadium and expected a different match. We thank them for coming.”
Good, I’m glad he didn’t do what most people do and give a generic comment. Ref was awful and people like that are ruining the game. It used to be a contact sport… guess not anymore. Forza Sandro. That said, Sandro has been decent this year, pretty solid overall but he needs to discover last year’s form again, we need it.
He nailed it with basketball comparison.