Eljif Elmas made his thoughts on the refereeing performance clear after Napoli lost 1-0 to AC Milan last night in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash.
It was a game full of big chances pretty much from the first minute to the last, but the only goal came towards the end of the first half as Ismael Bennacer thundered a shot in at the near post to finish off a break.
Napoli were dealt two big blows in the second half however, as Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa received two yellow cards within minutes and was sent off, and then Kim Min-jae also got a booking which rules him out of the second leg.
Elmas gave a very short interview to Mediaset after the game in which he made his feelings on the officiating pretty clear, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“I don’t know what I have to say. It’s incredible. He whistled everything, everyone was booked, they made many fouls and were never booked. Something I’ve never seen before. An incredible thing, in such an important match,” he said.
It must be said that Anguissa can have little arguments about his second yellow card, while Milan also had two good appeals for a penalty turned down as Rade Krunic was hauled to the floor during a corner and Alexis Saelemaekers was pushed over late on.
bs, milan was fouled far more than napoli and for example kim should have gotten a yellow card far earlier than he got one.
Anguissa 2 yellow cards were clearly correct decision. First one, he didn’t play for the ball, he aim for Theo, this is football, not MMA fight. Second one was a stomach kick, could have been straight red. Those complaining against it are just sore losers.
Napoli looks more and more like a sore loser 🙁
Well they got beat twice now from us. We living in their heads rent free.
😀 like that phrase
I remembered hearing a commentator say that the official was being influenced by the noisy Milan fans and that it was to be expected because San Siro can be such an intimidating place to play. I just loved how they kept finding excuses.
Well, my man Eljif, you see, that’s because we knew how to make fouls, you didn’t, and if you don’t know when, where and how to make fouls in these type of games you’re not gonna get far in this competition.
Milan was the team that suffered the most with poor refereeing decisions with the two PKs that were not called on Krunic and Saeleamaekers which could have resulted in a 3-0 for us. Also, there was a clear foul on Theo in first half that was a tactical one and deserved a yellow (and could have resulted in a goal if Theo had not been brought down) and a foul on Giroud that also deserved a yellow. Napoli complaining bout refereeing in a game where they got away with so much is a joke.
The Theo foul in the first half should have been carded.
The ref didn’t give out cards early in the game, and as it was expected there was a rebound in the second half, the players got more careless and the ref got trigger happy