Pioli: ‘I told the referee what I thought of him’

Milan coach Stefano Pioli says ‘I told the referee what I thought of him’ after the Fikayo Tomori’s unfortunate red card against Chelsea. The Rossoneri were down to 10 men early on against the Blues, thanks to a controversial decision to send off the English centre-back.

Speaking to Mediaset after the game, Pioli made his feelings about the decision known:

The game had just started and I had the feeling we were doing well. The red card and penalty changed the game, against a team that was already strong and did not need to have an extra man too.

We had the chances to get back into it. This is a pity, we had the feeling we could really have our say this evening.

I don’t need to see the replay (of the penalty), it was too easy to judge that incident. I told the referee what I thought of him after the match. My English isn’t exactly fluent, but I think he got the general idea…

It’s a negative result, but our destiny remains in our hands. If we want to be competitive in Europe too, we need to win the next two, and we have every chance of doing that. Now let’s dive back into Serie A, with a difficult match against a side that is changing coach. We need to recoup our energy.

We absolutely have to believe in our chances of qualifying. We must go to Zagreb to play our football, then welcome Salzburg here at San Siro.

It’s a pity we were not given the opportunity to reward the crowd with a good performance this evening. We paid a very heavy price for one incident.

If we were able to keep this game in the balance in the circumstances, much of the credit goes to our fans.”