AC Milan boss Paulo Fonseca was in an angry mood following his side's 2-1 loss away to Fiorentina on Sunday, suggesting the decisions to give three penalties turned the game into a 'circus'. (More Football News)
Remarkably, all three spot-kicks were saved during the match. The home side initially saw Moise Kean's penalty kept out by Mike Maignan, while David de Gea then saved from Theo He✃rnandezꦏ - who was later sent off - and Tammy Abraham either side of half-time.
But after the game, Fonseca's attention was on the performance of the officials r🎀ather than the goalkeeping.
"I don’t like to talk about refereeing but this isn’t football. Football is about contact and a mere touch♛ shouldn’t be enough to aw⛎ard a penalty," he told DAZN.
"Just a simple touch can lead to a penalty, we saw that this weekend as well. It makes everyone nervous, and thaღt creates problems. This is footb🍸all, not a circus."
Interestingly, neither Hernandez nor Abraham is Milan's designatꦗed penalty taker despite them taking the responsibility on Sunday.
"Our penal🍨ty taker is [Christia𓄧n] Pulisic. I don't know why the players changed their minds, I spoke to him and said that it must not happen again," said Fonseca.
Pulisic did score Milan's only goal oꦅf the night, having equalised after an hour, before Al❀bert Gudmondsson scored the winner for the hosts.
The United States international was visibly angry when brought off for Samuel Chukwueze with seven minutes to go after putting in a bright performancꦫe, but the Milan manager explained that he did not want to aggravate an injury.
"It was out of caution for Pulisic, he 🎃had a problem with his flexor d🔯uring the week. Chukwueze came in well and created opportunities," said Fonseca.
In terms of hi♋s side's overall performance, Fonseca did not want to focus on their penalty problems and instead suggested they did not do enough to get anything from the match.
"In the𝐆 first half, we lacked defensive aggression and strength in duels. The way we conceded goals clearly illustrates this; they almost always won the second balls," he said. "We weren't disciplined in our structure."
The defeat ended a run of threeಌ straight league victories for Milan, meaning they go into the internat🔥ional break sixth in the table and on the back of a defeat.
Despite that, and the gap to league leaders Napoli extending to six p𝓡oints, he was not panicking.
"In Italy when you win, you’ve played a great match. If we don’t score, we’re the worst team in the world, just as I’m the w🥂orst coach. I know how things are," he said.
Fonseca's assessment of the performance 🗹was mirrored by defender Matteo Gabbia, 🌜who was unhappy with how the game went.
"We are certainly not satisfied with the inဣitial approach. We feel this defeat, as🐻 it was our fault and we did not do our best tonight," he said.
"It starts with us, I saw the right disappointment and anger in𒉰 the dressing room and it💜 can be the only positive from this very negative night. We are angry that we put in this performance."
