Maurizio Sarri, Atalanta coach, spoke to Sky Sport after the match in which La Dea were defeated 3-2 by Milan at San Siro. During the interview, he complained about referee Chiffi's officiating. Here are his full statements.
Sarri, how do you explain such a bad first half?
"We pressed with little intensity in the first half, and so we found ourselves in a bit of difficulty. Despite this, the first big goalscoring chance of the match was ours with Krstovic. Then there were also incidents that went against us, because the ball hit a defender's arm three times: twice in our penalty area, and VAR intervened, and once in Milan's penalty area, and VAR did not intervene. On Rowe's cross, I think De Winter handled the ball.
"Then today, I also discovered something new, that there are players who can tell the referee to f*** off. Who it was doesn't matter. At the end of the first half, I asked the referee whether, according to the rules, there was someone who could tell him to fuck off, and he told me yes, but that he had booked him. So I told him that if I told him to fuck off, he would send me off, rightly so.
"So let's leave it at that. We absolutely did not like the way the match was officiated, but every time I encounter Chiffi at San Siro, it ends like this.
"Anyway, we're sorry not to have picked up any points, and above all, we're sorry to have had the chance to make it 3-3 with six minutes remaining, plus five minutes of added time, with eleven minutes available and the momentum of the match completely in our favour at that moment. So we could even have thought about something more than a draw.
"We're disappointed, but if the team is capable of performing as it did in the last half-hour, it must become a team that develops awareness and gains confidence."
Sarri comments on Gaetano's performance?
"All the substitutes who came on seemed to me to be very, very reactive and very positive. For some of them, by the time they came on, the team had already taken control of the match again, so their task was made easier. But the substitutions tonight gave us a lot."
