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.
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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.”
