What did you make of the alleged racist incident?
I'm in the game, I'm focused on the game, I'm too far from the area where it looked
like the incident happened. I don't have much to say other than it's something that saddens me
I hate racism in society, I hate racism in football. I'm disappointed that things like
that still can happen, but the referee stopped the game. He spoke to the players, he spoke
to the captains, he spoke with the coaches.
I was losing, I didn't want the game stopped but immediately when I knew the reason why
it was stopped I obviously understood and accepted it. The club is also a very proud
club in this kind of situation and the club also internally will try to delete it.
It was very unusual to see a midfield of yours so controlled in the first half?
They were better than us in the first half. It is not difficult for me to admit it
They played in a system they are very comfortable with. A system they played for two years with
Antonio Conte. Lots of their players are very comfortable with it. Alonso, Azpilicueta,
Kante, Willan, players very comfortable in this system.
They created problems for us in the first half, not problems of clear scoring situations
but like you say, with the control they had. The game was basically in our half despite
them not creating a lot. But in the end you are right and it’s easy for me to admit
they were superior. But you look to the goals and they are not a consequence of any superiority.
The first goal is a short corner with a big mistake. We know how to defend short corners,
we train how to deal with short corners. The players involved in the short corner solution
were not focused. So you concede a goal with a short corner and you concede a goal with
a penalty. So the goals didn't come from that superiority, they came from mistakes.
Then in the second half we changed, we felt we needed to change and we had much more control
and we were in our best period of the game and one goal would change the emotion of the
game because the game on the pitch was already changed. In the first half was in our half
and in the first 15-20 minutes of the second half were much more in their half, the game changed.
We were looking for a goal and instead of a goal comes a red card. Then the game obviously
is easy for them to control with players technically good and one player more. Then it was more difficult
What did you make of the red card incident?
For me it’s not a red card. I think if we go to every person in this room, some would
say yes and some would say no. That’s not the essence of the VAR. The essence, the initial
protocol of the VAR, I was involved in the beginning in UEFA meetings and this kind of
things, the VAR is for the penalty of the first half, a clear and obvious mistake, 65,000
persons in the stadium look to the screen and know it’s a penalty. For me that’s the VAR
When you have the situation with Son and Rudiger it's not a clear and obvious mistake by the
referee. The mistake from the referee in that action is not to give a yellow card to Rudiger,
because of the way he fouls Son. That is the clear mistake. But the VAR didn't say that.
Then the VAR goes to the Son situation which for me is not.
Then you can say yes and this young lady will say no and probably our friend here will say yes
but that's not VAR. So for me, really, really bad and basically kills the game.
Do you think the slow motion makes it look worse?
It’s the slow motion, the angles, it's everything. I was in the middle of being sad with the
result I still had time and mood to have a little joke in the flash interview
Rudiger is for sure is having scans in the hospital on broken ribs because it was a really violent
situation. In some countries, like mine, for example with our culture we used to say clever
player but in this country, and one of the reasons I fell in love with this country in
2004 it because we don't call them clever, we call them other things that I refuse to call
When Anthony Taylor came over to you and Frank Lampard on the touchline did he suggest the game could be called off?
No, no, no, no. I didn’t even know what was going on. I saw during the game Anthony
speaking too much with players in my opinion. Even on a situation that would sooner or later
end in a penalty for us, he was speaking to players all the time. Players grabbing Kane,
grabbing Dele Alli, in corners and lateral free-kicks.
He was speaking too much so when I saw him speaking with players and stopping the game
I thought it was one more teacher talk. But then when he came to me and Frank to tell
us what it was, it was very disappointing. You have to agree with every decision the
referee makes, stopping the game and sending everyone home. I have no control over that.
In this moment everyone is together because racism is a sad thing in society and a sad
thing in football and still happens.