Fiorentina, Cristiano Biraghi goes down flat with referee

Biraghi points finger at referee

Fiorentina clinched qualification to the Conference League semifinals but did so at the end of a strange evening, even finding themselves in an overall tie with a quarter of an hour left in the 90th minute when Lech was leading 3-0 at the Franchi. Goals from Sottil and Castrovilli in the final then allowed Vincenzo Italiano’s team to breathe a sigh of relief, but the fact remains of an evening below expectations, which the purple captain tried to explain to the microphones of ‘Sky Sport’ while also pointing the finger at referee Obrenovic.

“It was a bit of a peculiar evening,” said the side that grew up in Inter, “we got a goal on the first shot and we got scared. Then we got nervous about a refereeing that I leave to those in charge to judge, but it certainly affected us.”

“If fouls are whistled only on one side it complicates everything – Biraghi pressed -. I don’t like to talk about refereeing but if for example there had been the second yellow for the foul on Sottil the game would have been different. However it’s all part of the game, the referee handled it that way.”

“At 0-3 we thought the unthinkable,” the purple captain then concluded, “fortunately we recovered it: we will analyze in the coming hours the reasons for the defeat, but we are happy for the qualification.