De Zerbi on defeat to Sporting and his shocking excuse: The referee... | OneFootball

Roberto De Zerbi used the refereeing team to justify Marseille's defeat, against Sporting, in the match last Wednesday, October 22. The French team was defeated at Alvalade, 2-1, after having led at halftime.

The game was marked by several poorly decided calls by the referee, favoring Marseille. Four of the decisions - the most important of the match - were overturned by VAR: the penalty that didn't exist on Emerson Palmieri, the consequent red card for the Italian player, the offside on Geny Catamo's goal, and the red card to Maxi Araújo.

Even under these circumstances, De Zerbi... complained about the referee: "In my opinion, we paid the price for the refereeing errors. I didn't like the way the game was conducted. I think the referee wasn't up to the level of a game of this magnitude." Interestingly, he wasn't the only Marseille member to complain about the refereeing team.

"Was it too difficult to resist? No, I think even with 10 players we didn't suffer that much. There weren't many other goal opportunities. They brought in fresh, quality players. I was quite calm, even with one less player," De Zerbi added, regarding the period when they were outnumbered against Sporting.

The Marseille coach then concluded his analysis: "We had to defend with five. Between Greenwood and Paixão, the one with better characteristics to attack and defend was Paixão. Last year, when we were down to 10 players against Lyon, Greenwood had great difficulties as a center forward."

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