Dorival praises Corinthians, blames draw on refereeing: "Shocking mistake" | OneFootball

Dorival Júnior was upset with the refereeing after the Corinthians draw in the classic against Santos this Thursday at Vila Belmiro, during the fourth round of the Campeonato Paulista. The coach believes that the result was directly influenced by referee Lucas Canetto Belotti and spoke of a “grotesque error”.

“The game is credited to the refereeing. It took away our chance for an important result. Gustavo Henrique's ankle is swollen. He called an absurd foul, among other errors. It's difficult. We are working with challenges. We had control of the match, played securely. The result was practically decided and was taken from us by a grotesque error. It happened several times last year and today with direct interference from a refereeing that was regrettable,” the coach stated in a press conference.

“Football must be decided on merit. Unfortunately, he found a foul, adding extra time in a game that was contested. I would like to understand where he saw all this. Then, he lets the play finish and makes a decision, giving Santos two goal opportunities. One that fell to Gabriel and the set piece. This direct interference is regrettable. Then they say Corinthians concedes many goals. We have a competitive, very regular team that unfortunately has suffered too much with the level of refereeing,” he added.

“Secure Performance”

In Dorival's view, the performance at Vila Belmiro was the “best of Corinthians this year”. He praised the team's behavior against Santos and explained the decision to start Matheus Pereira, filling the midfield.

“It was the best game. Secure, balanced, conscious, respecting the opponent, winning the duels. This provided us with a very positive situation. I hope we maintain this condition. It was this attitude that led us to fight for the Copa do Brasil. I hope we repeat it more often,” he evaluated.

“Matheus played his role, creating and organizing. We had everything we wanted, ball possession, infiltrations. Twice we managed to take the lead and suffered fouls, in my view, disqualifying. Matheus was very well positioned, playing close to Bidon, with a high level of possession. We did not stop being an offensive team. We allowed André to infiltrate, we had very good things. We lacked extending the score to prevent refereeing interference in the result, as happened,” he concluded.

Yuri Alberto's Mistake

Dorival also spoke about the penalty missed by Yuri Alberto. The forward missed the shot but redeemed himself minutes later with the goal that opened the scoring for Corinthians.

This was the fourth mistake in the last five penalties taken by the player. Dorival assures he is training well but does not rule out a change.

“He has been training very well. It is natural to maintain confidence. We will talk, everything can be evaluated. He continues training, passes the ball to someone else, perhaps. If he remains confident, we will work to help him correct this,” said the coach.

Standings Situation

With the result, Corinthians remains in seventh place in the standings with five points, completing three games without a win. So far, there are two draws, one loss, and one victory.

Next Corinthians Game

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.