Alessandro Nesta made it clear that he was furious about the officiating during Monza’s 1-0 defeat to AC Milan at the U-Power Stadium last night.
Milan got a much needed three points from their Lombardy neighbours on Saturday night, but it was far from a vintage performance. The only goal of the game came late in the first half as Tijjani Reijnders pounced on a blocked Alvaro Morata header to put the Rossoneri 1-0 up.
Monza had their chances in truth and they thought that they had got themselves the lead in the eighth minute when a knockdown from Djuric was buried via a deflection from Dany Mota. However, the referee disallowed the goal for a foul in the build-up on Theo Hernandez.
Nesta spoke to Sky straight after the full-time whistle and was asked for his thoughts on what was a game that his side certainly deserved something from. His comments were relayed by MilanNews.
Do you leave the stadium with more anger or more pride?
“With anger, certainly, but proud of my boys. We played great games against Milan and Atalanta, we could have scored four goals. We scored one but they disallowed it.
“Football is being ruined, there are crazy rules. We need to go back to refereeing like we used to. People don’t like games broken up by a thousand fouls.
“In Bergamo the referees apologised to us, what kind of foul is that in midfield today? We’re complicating football.”
How did the referee explain the incident to you? Why did he blow the whistle right away?
“There is VAR, you can go and review it and then say if it is a foul or not. Football used to be simpler, even with contact. In the first ten minutes you understood the yardstick, then you adapted.
“I have too much to do to keep up with all these things. The rules must adapt to football, not vice versa. Today it seems that there is a rule to adapt to. The rules must adapt to football, not the other way around.”
You conceded a goal on the counter-attack…
“We committed too many players, we went with the left, the full-backs and the midfielder. Then they countered strongly. They have ability in these spaces, they were also lucky, it fell precisely to his head. A shame.
“I think that for Monza’s path we have to win against teams within our reach. Then when you clash with these armies they can also risk losing when they come here. But we have to get points against the small ones.”
Daniel Maldini had a bright game…
“Daniel is a very strong player, he has to find a mental balance. He has to understand how strong he is, he has to understand that he can have an important career. God gave him qualities, it’s a responsibility. He has to try to reach a high level, he went to the national team and he has to stay there.”