AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli believes that the decision to send Fikayo Tomori off and award a penalty to Chelsea early in last night’s game ‘changed everything’.
Just 18 minutes into the game, the German referee Siebert awarded a penalty to Chelsea and also gave a red card to Fikayo Tomori. After watching the replays, many have stated that it shouldn’t have been a penalty at all.
Pioli spoke to Milan TV after the game to reflect on the performance from his side and another negative result, one that was greatly influenced by the referee Siebert, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“It is not difficult to comment on the match. The feeling is that the team started with the right attitude, then the incident changed everything and created a lot of difficulties for us,” he said.
“I’m sorry because it was a difficult game and we wanted to play it until the end, so it was very hard but I have to congratulate my players who in ten had an incredible spirit, they didn’t give up. We also had a couple of situations where we could have scored a goal.
“Too bad, in this stadium and with these fans we had to do differently. Now we throw ourselves back on the league knowing that managing the Champions League is still in our hands.
“It is always important for a group that knows how to face difficulties, knows how to compact and knows how to work a lot. It wasn’t the evening we all wanted.”
On the desire to get going again in the Champions League: “Absolutely yes, we want to do it immediately in Zagreb. It is clear that the first step is decisive, after we will think about the second.
“Now there is a lot to do in the league, we have Verona, then Monza, the ranking is good but we want to continue improving it. It was the fourth game, we played eighty minutes with ten men and we need to recover, we will do it and we will prepare as best we can for the match against Verona.”
