There might have been only one goal in the game between Lazio and AC Milan tonight, but there was plenty of drama in a very feisty second half.
Milan got over the line and won 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico against Lazio to bring an end to a winless run of three games, but that does not even begin to tell the story of what was a dramatic night.
Luca Pellegrini was sent off for the home side after ragging Christian Pulisic down, earning a second yellow card, and then Noah Okafor scored off the bench in the 88th minute to settle the contest.
However, in the final few moments Lazio were given two more red cards. The first went to Adam Marusic who clearly said something bad to the referee Marco Di Bello, then Matteo Guendouzi shoved Pulisic to the ground following a foul to get a straight red.
As TMW report, Alessio Romagnoli was enraged at the end of the match. After referee Di Bello blew the final whistle, the Biancoceleste captain shouted ‘scandalous, scandalous, scandalous’ regarding the officiating of the match.
Lazio complained that they should have had a penalty after contact between Mike Maignan and Taty Castellanos in the area, as well as about the three red cards too.
After the final whistle another big coming together between the two sets of players happened, with Romagnoli seen grabbing Malick Thiaw by the throat (as in the featured image of this article) but escaping a second yellow himself.
Claudio Lotito, the president of Lazio, spoke to DAZN after the game and it would be fair to say that he was not best pleased. MilanNews relayed his comments.
“I feel like saying that when the game takes on these characteristics there must be other bodies responsible for making evaluations,” he said.
“It means that the reliability of the system is lacking, and if the reliability of the system is lacking, it is necessary to resort to third-party institutions which then put an end to these unfortunate situations, especially with regards to the values of sport.
“Football has demonstrated that many matches are won due to imponderable events. There is a famous limit beyond which we must never go and it seems to me that today we have exceeded all possible and imaginable limits.
“I come to speak precisely to prevent the words from being interpreted from an instrumental point of view. I can say that the team will assert itself in the appropriate forums for what everyone has seen publicly based on what happened.
“When a system is unable to guarantee its reliability, it must ask itself questions and act with facts, not words. It seems to me that this thing has been happening for some time, we’ll see if we can assert ourselves with other institutions.”
What do you think of Di Bello?
“I won’t go into detail because I’m not a referee, because someone who is a referee should have the ability to understand what the balance point and the breaking point are. Today the mediation points are not conceivable, there are no conditions to find a meeting point.”
Did you speak to the referee?
“I don’t speak to the referees, I’ve never spoken to Di Bello. I saw how he refereed. I don’t know who he is, I don’t know where he comes from, it’s not my custom to have relations with referee institutions.
“The time has come for the League to have a third party management outside the system because the system is no longer able to give guarantees.”
What did he tell the team?
“Today I can’t blame the team for anything, they fought until the end and also had the opportunities to crown a sporting result that was different from what, perhaps, some people expected. I think that in life there are values to respect.
“The values of sport are respect for the rules and merit. Today it seems to me that these things have disappeared. Today was a forced defeat. In this system the rules are no longer respected: the story of a death foretold.”
What response do you expect from the institutions?
“Having a role in political institutions, I know very well which institutions need to be addressed and with which institutional means to intervene. Today something unjustifiable happened, society’s obligation is to intervene to ensure that others also respect the rules.
“Today was a match devoid of sporting values. I don’t speak with regret about the defeat. I speak with the certainty of what I saw and with the awareness that these things must never happen again, neither to Lazio nor to others.”
Only the 3rd red card was too harsh. Yes, Lazio player pushed Pulisic in frustration, but that should have been just a yellow.
1st one was absolutely a 2nd yellow. You want the game to stop kick the ball out of bounds. You’ll get it back anyway.
On the 2nd red, the commentators said that the Lazio player said something that is a NO-NO.
I like Romagnoli, but being in Rome, he has been acting just like those 2 other cry babies playing for Roma, Cristante, and Mancini. They spend more time around the ref than the opposing players.
Lotitto is always crying 😢 about something
But the third red card was in fact just a second yellow card so it wasnt really too harsh. If anything the second one looked more like a dive to me.
First one i fully agree.
Romagnoli even should have gotten a red card for grabbing thiaws throat after the game had ended and this comes from a milan fan who always supported romagnoli and liked him before his arrival in milano. It was a pretty disgracefull attitude from their players today even though i can understand some frustration by the lazio players.
Guendouzi received straight red. He didn’t have a yellow before that. The yellow ref was holding was for Pulisic
then why did the ref have a yellow and a red card in both of his hands ? did he just make a mistake in that regard because he clearly showcases two cards at the same time.
roughly 2:48 – 2:50
The yellow was for Pulisic foul on Guendouzi. He is pulling him purposely to stop him.
He is facing 1 card in one direction the 2nd card in the opposite direction.
Yellow for Pulisic, red for Guendouzi
Ok fair enough Z well then its does indeed become rather puzzeling 😀 my bad
Retaliation is a red card offence and moreso, he didn’t push Pulisic, he punched/shoved him in the chest, any player had a right with a technical foul, after all, they started it (Leao, bennacer and Pulisic had been fouled many times by being pulled down in the same game) and when Milan got a goal, we did same to protect our lead, kudos to our carded players, they took more than one for the team
Exactly. I was going to say that the red came from the punch and was 100% correct decision.
Honestly, i hope to see what pulisic did (knowingly or unknowingly) more and more in seria a. The stop and go, constant complaints to the ref, over enactment for a foul or a card must disappear for the good of italian football. As an italian fan, I’d like to see a more fast paced direct football, and don’t wanna see the rhythm of the game stop every 60s.
The rules say “keep playing until the ref whistles”. Pulisic did nothing wrong.
Straight red for Guenduzi not second yellow*
I thought that the only wrong decision by the ref tonight was not giving a red card to Romagnoli. All 3 red cards were correct, and if anything, Romagnoli should have had a second yellow after a tactical foul, much earlier. Then, grabbing Thiaw by the throat is unacceptable, and a red. And no, Mike did not commit a PK. He got to the ball first. Just, his momentum pushed him into Lazio’s player. The Lazio people are just whining, and they are wrong.
ive always been talking nicely about romagnoli but that throat grab was direct red card but nevertheless after the match ended so no affect on the match. I will agree though that lazio players was moaning and groaning throughout the match and consistently tried to affect the refs decisions. To be fair i wouldnt have blamed any player to have smacked either the lazio plaers or the ref both parts behaved incompetent.
Then probably you had forgotten his past few matches against us, he was worse than acerbi or storaro, for a man that had captained milan, complained too much and I was even surprised that some players greeted him in the dug out b4 the game, most players that left Milan have always been disappointingly hateful against us apart from Bonaventura
Well sorry for the late reply but i whent out and got hammered and hasnt returned home before now but i dont recollect either the romagnoli or sturari tales of yours but if you say so i wont disregard it either as i simply doesnt remember at present but overall former milan players generally always praise the club and if they doesnt then they in a minority,
wHAT ABOUT THAT SEVERE ELBOW TO THE BACK OF GIROUD S HEAD !!!! IS THAT PLAYING THE BALL ?????? RED CARD …………. ALL DAY
Milan management should follow it up with the FA, he would surely get like a 4 match ban, mostly for the comments he made against the referee, the FA, a disgraceful former captain, we should have a banner for him when he comes to San Siro next
“I thought that the only wrong decision by the ref tonight was not giving a red card to Romagnoli. ”
Actually Luiz Alberto should have gotten a red too as he seemed to headbutt Adli when (I think) the first red was shown.
Taty no longer had the ball when he went down. Keep playing the victim, this is entertaining.
Even the pitch was extremely wet and even one of those fan boys slipped when coming /matching into the pitch with players at the beginning, the referee was fully aware of that, moreso, maignian was looking at the ball that he punched away and like you said too, the Lazio player never got the ball
Claudio Lotito should be upset about the fact that his team are garbage in front of goal and not about the penalty they didn’t get. Lazio got what they deserved
I want to see the brawl!
romagnoli better to be braver against lukaku, zlatan not always there
cant belive we actually wated pellegrini on loan for back up lb. dodged one there 😀 he’s been meh for lazio so far
Lotito, as always, it is a crybaby, not aware that Sarri is doing a shitshow with a decent team at disposal. Before the red Lazio did not know who was in Milan goalposts so let’s call a spade, a spade dear Claudio. And the bottom line here is that Pellegrini just needed to kick the ball out and all this would not have happened. A complete m0r0n