Atalanta boss Sarri bitter after Milan loss over perceived missed penalty and red card

Maurizio Sarri let the officials know what he thought of their performance after his Atalanta side lost to AC Milan on Sunday night.

It was a strange night for Sarri and Atalanta, one in which they ultimately left empty-handed but could very easily have rescued something from a dire situation. Goncalo Ramos, Adrien Rabiot and Mario Gila had put Milan 3-0 up, and it looked like a real hammering could be on the cards.

However, La Dea came roaring back in the final 25 minutes and scored twice to make it a nervy finale, through Gianluca Gaetano and Nikola Krstovic. The Rossoneri hung on in the end, though it was perhaps an indication that Sarri got his set-up wrong from the start.

Sarri bemoans officiating display

Sarri was present in the press conference room at San Siro shortly after the final whistle to offer his assessments on the game, and it’s fair to say he was not happy with the refereeing. MilanNews transcribed his words.

What was missing from this Atalanta at the beginning?

“As for the 3-3, we missed the chance to equalise with six minutes left plus five minutes of injury time. With the momentum of the game at that point, it would have been easier to win than to draw.

“We lacked some things at the start: low defensive intensity, low level of aggression, and it was too easy for them to come out of their own half on the ball.

“On top of that, there was a series of incidents that were all unfavourable to us: three handballs in both penalty areas, in our area, a penalty was always awarded, while in Milan’s area, it wasn’t awarded.

“The first penalty, honestly, was a very soft one, because Obric’s movement seemed very appropriate to me. If you call VAR for that, you’ll also call it for De Winter. Then today I discovered that there are players who can repeatedly tell the referee to f*** off and, despite regulation, they don’t get booked…

“I discovered that today. Then we played very well in the last 30-35 minutes, raising the bar. The intensity and pace of the match and putting them under pressure. I’m not just talking about a nervous reaction, but also good quality from a footballing perspective.

“We’re still a bit disappointed with the result, but we need to come away from this match with increased confidence that we’re becoming a team.”

A step forward or backward today?

“We have to analyse every single situation. We have responsibilities in the first half, so we’ll have to analyse everything we did wrong and understand why we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been.

“Then we’ll analyse the second half, when everything started to work and we closed them down in the box, putting them in real trouble. So there’s a step forward and a step back. However, leaving San Siro having pinned Milan down in their own box for half an hour should make us realize that.”

How do you assess the start of this season?

“Defensively, I definitely haven’t made much of an impact yet because we need to improve, but I’m not just talking about the defensive line: I’m talking about the overall defensive phase.

“In terms of our ability to be dangerous and our dribbling skills, however, I think the team is evolving extremely positively, an evolution that has accelerated in the last 15-20 days.”

How do you deal with a defensive emergency?

“By letting the young players play. We’ll bring them in a few months earlier than expected.”