Mancio: Ref got it wrong
Inter Coach Roberto Mancini admits they received an undeserved penalty and that Patrick Vieira made life harder for his squad.
“I am happy for the victory, it was a real struggle,” he said of the 1-0 result against relegation battlers Empoli.
“It had become dangerous, seeing as we were a man down for over half the match. We made life complicated for ourselves, because we had a red card for the third time in four games.”
Vieira marked his first start since November by foolishly getting sent off, booked for a foul and then receiving the second card for swearing at the referee moments later.
“If we had all 11 men on the field, we would not have had problems and would have scored plenty of goals.
“I don’t know what Patrick said to the referee, but the first yellow card for the foul should not have been given, in my view.”
Yet Inter only won the match thanks to an extremely debatable penalty for Ighli Vannucchi’s handling offence, as the replays show the ball struck his face.
“Both the penalty given to us and the one awarded to Empoli were the wrong decision,” confessed Mancini.
“These are incidents that change a game. You cannot give this as I doubt Vannucchi voluntarily tried to get the ball with his arm. In that case, a player intends to defend himself and not to commit an infraction.”
Empoli had the chance to equalise with their own spot-kick late on for Marco Materazzi’s challenge on Luca Saudati, but the striker has his effort saved by Julio Cesar.
“Unfortunately referees are not in a relaxed state of mind,” added Empoli boss Alberto Malesani.
“I spoke to the fourth official about the penalty and even he didn’t know what to say. I guess you just have to accept the decisions and move on.”
Inter held a Press silence last week in protest at the controversy over their penalty award against Parma and this was an even more contentious decision than Fernando Couto’s handling offence.
“It is a question of pressure. As I am in charge of a small club, nobody listens to what I have to say. I doubt it is so much a psychological submission to the big sides, more of a pressure, and the major clubs have the advantage.
“Unfortunately we shot ourselves in the foot as well because we don’t finalise our scoring opportunities. We played a great game, but were unable to pick up points and that is a shame.”
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