José Mourinho was furious again. This time, he was upset that the referee did not whistle a clear penalty in the seventh round of Serie A. He had to leave the bench after less than an hour of AS Roma’s match against Atalanta. He saw a red card from the referee and quite possibly another punishment awaits him.
Giorgio Scalvini gave the visitors the lead in the first half. Home team Rome had a chance to level the game after less than an hour of play, when Nicolo Zaniolo rushed into the goal, who fell to the ground in a fight with Caleb Okoli.
According to referee Daniele Chiffi, attacking Zaniolo fouled, so the referee ordered a free kick from the Atalanta goal. From the repeated shots, the fight seems questionable, but it does not look like an obvious foul by the defender.
However, Mourinho fundamentally disagreed with that, according to whom AS Roma should have kicked a penalty.
He immediately ran straight onto the field to scold the referee. Chiffi, of course, had no choice but to run a few meters into the playing area and gave the Roma coach a red card. The enraged Portuguese had to be held by his assistants so that he did not attack the referee directly.
This sent the Olimpico stadium into a frenzy, with fans immediately chanting Mourinho’s name and creating a sultry atmosphere. However, even that did not help AS to reverse the course of the match, and Atalanta only needed one goal to win.
For the last half hour, the experienced coach has only been from the stands.
José Mourinho in Serie A, match AS Rome – Atalanta | Photo: Reuters
Mourinho did not see the red in Serie A for the first time, he already received it in February this year during the match of the Romans in Verona.
After a match between the top two teams, Verona moved up to level with first-place Napoli, while AS Roma are sixth ahead of the international break, four points adrift of top spot and a point behind city rivals Lazio Roma.
