Davide Calabria was furious after the final whistle at the first meeting between AC Milan and Napoli in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Milan captain Calabria silenced: “Completely retarded card”
Referee István Kovács and his assistants made it very colorful, because the Napoli camp also lashed out at the arbitration. While Napoli mainly complained about the cards for André-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Min-Jae Kim, Calabria revealed on Amazon Prime Video what happened when he was shown a yellow card deep into stoppage time.
Alexis Saelemaekers went down in a duel with Stanislav Lobotka in the sixteen-meter area, according to Calabria a penalty. “The referee kept calling me and Di Lorenzo (Napoli captain) The whole match because there were problems with the VAR, which did and did not work. I asked for an explanation and the fourth official pushed me away,” he said.
“I don’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to talk, because I’m the captain,” said the 26-year-old right back. “And I was even thrown on the receipt and I think that card is completely retarded. As captain, if I can’t talk to the referee, who can? But I don’t want to keep talking about this all the time. It feels useless.”
“It was fifty-fifty before kick-off and it will remain that way”
Trainer Stefano Pioli was one of the few who did not criticize the arbitration afterwards. “I am especially happy to enjoy evenings like this with our fans. Milan’s history has many Champions League victories. But in recent years we dreamed of coming here, so we wanted to enjoy it,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
“I thought it was fifty-fifty before kick-off and it will remain that way after this first meeting,” said Pioli, who thought the victory was justified. “We were a bit lucky in the beginning but never lost our balance, we always kept that concentration and sacrifice for the ball, giving Napoli what is fair for a side of their quality.”
Simon Kjær, AC Milan’s star defender, explained how harsh the game turned out for their opponents. He said: “We had to struggle in the first minutes of the game, and Napoli had a minute to score. Then, after getting one or two chances, we scored, and we had the opportunity to score more. But that’s how it is in this level of football. Throughout the course of the game, the momentum will occasionally shift from one side to the other.”
