The Atalanta coach refers to Bella-Kotchap’s handball which then gave rise to Verona’s third goal, which effectively closed the match: “We could have scored the 2-1 and the 3-0 wouldn’t have come”
Second defeat for Raffaele Palladino on the Atalanta bench: this time, however, there is a lot of bitterness. For the performance, for an “inexplicable” first half, but also for the episode that effectively ended the match, the suspicious handball from Bella-Kotchap on whose development Verona’s 3-0 was generated. Speaking to Sky, the coach didn’t mince his words: “I’m not polemical, we had a bad first half, a bad performance for which I take responsibility, we were limp. But this time what happened in the episode is evident: you can see from the images that the touch is there, it’s too obvious.”
the episode
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We are in the 71st minute of the match, Samardzic stops in the area for the alleged handball mentioned above, Hellas starts again and scores a hat-trick. Nerazzurri protests, with referee Mariani explaining to captain De Roon how “they checked all the cameras, even the ref cam, the ball is not touched and never changes direction, that’s what they told me”. “To make mistakes is human” comments Palladino, “but just seeing that the touch is there, then maybe the ball doesn’t change direction. But the result changes, because we could have gone to 2-1 and the 3-0 wouldn’t have arrived. The VAR has to simplify, instead it seems like we’re complicating our lives.”
bad evening
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For the coach, however, the priorities are different: “I am the leader of this team and I cannot accept this defeat, there must be a winning mentality in this group, not a losing one. These matches are not acceptable. We cannot lose in terms of attitude” he states, “we made a mistake in understanding the match, we were not able to get into it and adapt to the type of match it should have been. It must not happen again, we reacted late: it is not the result we wanted, we apologize to our fans”.
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