Sandro Tonali did not take it easy on the horrible referring performance of Daniel Siebert, as Milan lost 2-0 to Chelsea at Stadio San Siro.
Milan took on Chelsea last night and after 17 minutes of play they lost Fikayo Tomori to a red card following an inexplicable and horrific call by referee Daniel Siebert who last night proved – with extreme consistency – that he is so inadequate and incompetent that he should not even be officiating Sunday League games.
Chelsea took full advantage of having the extra man and the Siebert horror show and eased past Milan for the second week in a row with goals from Jorginho (21′ pk) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (34′). Milan tried to do what they can, but this was too much for Stefano Pioli’s side.
“Beyond the yellow cards… it’s about the interpretation of fouls because there were a few… – putting the penalty aside – there were a few fouls that there’s a thousands of them in a game,” Tonali told MilanTV at the end of the game. “In a Champions League match, to have so many… Practically every tackle was a foul and every foul was a yellow card – for us. Sometimes, there was this… not fear, but the worry of making a late tackle in case a yellow card was shown after 15/20 minutes and this weighs heavily in the Champions League.
“We tried to maintain the tempo. In the first half, we committed seven fouls including the penalty and picked up three yellows and a red. This seems to be a lot for a Champions League match because I didn’t witness bad to really reckless fouls, not mentioning the penalty incident. We shouldn’t draw conclusions about ourselves from this. It greatly influenced the game but we need to have the strength to not draw conclusions about ourselves from this.”
On the fans: “We’re disappointed for our fans, who give us their support from start to finish in every match. 75,000 in the stands… not everyone can claim this. From the 18th minute, when the penalty incident happened, we gave absolutely everything, showing all our passion. With our fans behind us, we tried to do everything possible but it was a very complicated situation. It was already difficult enough when we had 11 men. We saw that in the reverse fixture. It was difficult playing with 10 men against 11, even if we showed heart and played with all the passion and strength we could.”
On the next matches: “We’ve seen that we have the strength to move on after a defeat. Look at what happened after Napoli, and after the reverse fixture in London. We need to have the strength to do it again because it’s all in our own hands in the Champions League. As for Serie A, we’re 3 points behind the leaders. There’s no reason why we should get downhearted, be unhappy and not have smiles on our faces. We need to continue in this manner, putting this defeat aside. We know that we’re strong and have everything in our own hands.”
Speaking to Sky Italia, Tonali said: “There are so many incidents like that during a game. When you give a penalty and a red card after 18 minutes, for a touch like that… We may as well make it basketball where any touch is a foul. It felt like that anyway, we had several yellow cards for ridiculous, embarrassing free kicks in the first half alone. Anyway, we have to look at the rest of the game. We tried to play with pride and passion, even if it was very difficult in the circumstances. It’s disappointing for all the fans who came here tonight, packed the stadium and expected a different match. We thank them for coming.
On qualifying for the Round of 16: “There are two games to go, everything is still to play for. We need to win, that is all we can do, without looking at penalties and red cards. It is still in our hands.”
On the double defeat against Chelsea: “We must be strong and able to turn this anger into football. The disappointment of not playing like Milan in the first match, the anger at the decisions tonight, we have to turn it all into positive energy for the next two matches.”
Sandro also had an interview with Mediaset Infinity+: “I think we got off to a very good start with the help and thrust of our fans. The referee created a problem for us, with the penalty and the red card that – in the Champions League – seems a bit exaggerated. If I had been the referee, I would not even have given the penalty. In a competition like this, 15 minutes from the start…
“We cannot choose the referees, they sent this one and he had a bad game. We put our hearts into it for 70 minutes thanks to the 75,000 fans tonight.”
