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Jose Mourinho is no stranger to clashes with match officials. Throughout his glittering career on the touchlines, he has been known for getting into spats with referees, linesmen and fourth officials and has often found himself watching games from the stands as a result.
Although the Portuguese manager claims to have mellowed in recent years, he is currently having a record season for sending-offs. Tonight, he was sent to the stands for the third time this season as Roma lost to Cremonese in Serie A.
The win has left Roma outside the top four in Italy’s top flight as Mourinho looks to return to the top table of European football. Cremonse, on the other hand, have climbed off the foot of the table after recording their very first league win of the season.
The sending-off came just minutes after the second half started after Mourinho became infuriated with refereeing decisions. He was forced to watch the second half with his assistant, Salvatore Foti, who was serving a suspension for abusive touchline antics in a Coppa Italia game against Cremonese.
A grim watch from the stands
Mourinho’s night certainly didn’t get any better after swapping the technical area for the stands in the second half. His side were already trailing when he got sent off thanks to a first-half goal from Frank Tsadjout and things failed to improve in the second 45.
Despite that, Roma did find an equaliser in the 71st minute through Leonardo Spinazzola and it looked as if they would go on to find the winner. However, with seven minutes remaining Cremonese were awarded a penalty which Ciofani converted to give the home side a truly precious three points.
Another week, another Jose Mourinho red card 😂 pic.twitter.com/sWMjRfgsqp
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 28, 2023
Speaking afterwards, Mourinho said:
“I am emotional, but not crazy. In order to react the way I did, something had to happen first. I need to understand if I can take any legal action. Piccinini gave me a red card, because unfortunately, the fourth official does not have the capacity to understand what he said to me.
I want to find out if there is an audio recording. I don’t want to get into the fact that Serra is from Turin and on Sunday we are playing against Juventus.
For the first time in my career, a fourth official spoke to me in the most incredible way. It was unjustifiable. At the end, Piccinini told me to apologise to Serra but I told Serra he should have the courage to explain what happened, but he had memory problems.”
The latest in a long line of disputes
Mourinho is no stranger to disputes and has had a love-hate relationship with officials in every country that he has managed. He has racked up millions of pounds in fines due to comments made about match officials and has faced accusations of sneaking into stadiums in cleaning carts when banned.
With Roma into the round of 16 of the Europa League and locked in a tense battle for the top four in Italy, it is likely that we haven’t heard the end of the controversy surrounding Mourinho this season.
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