Roma – Sassuolo 0-0

The referee Maresca strongly directed the game with one-way decisions. The yellow seems too severe to Pedro because the Spaniard does not touch Berardi (as Bergomi also says to Sky Calcio Club). Red card is right because Pedro stops an action that could have been dangerous. That's why I said on Twitter that on this occasion the referee didn't make a mistake, because Pedro had to remember that he had been previously cautioned and avoid interventions. Goals canceled by VAR of Mkhi and Haraslin are right decisions. We can discuss if you want the VAR protocol when it is called into question, but Dzeko's foul on Locatelli is clear.

We have been subjected to several severe warnings (especially Mirante). In the last minutes, on a cross from Spinazzola there was a hand ball by Aylan considered not punishable by a penalty. Honestly, I don't know what the new rules on handballs are, if that is not handball, they have to explain to us why the referee's interpretative space is so large, given that often this year too these handballs are punished with penalty (at least Maresca could review the situation at the VAR). Shortly before, there had been Obiang's hammer foot on Pellegrini. It could be considered a pestone (as the former referee, Marelli says), if he had hit the foot, not having traumatic consequences and therefore the yellow card would have been right, but the Hispanic-Guinean hits the ankle, causing a blunt trauma to the Roman and Romanist he will probably be absent in the next games, so the red card would have been more right.

The referee had an irritating attitude towards us throughout the game that could have sent us on tilt (and partially sent us on tilt). At the start of the match I wanted to win but for the situation that had arisen (Roma played 50 minutes outnumbered) it was a gold draw.

The technical performance was very good. They were dangerous especially with Berardi's pass behind Ibanez, but in this situation Cristante was very good to close all the times. In general, they have never been dangerous. While we also in the second half in 10 we had several occasions, even hitting a post. Among all, the best were Pellegrini (although probably on the occasion of the canceled goal, he was wrong to not shoot), the evergreen Spinazzola and Karsdorp (for me the best in the field especially for the defensive phase).

The situation in Italy. We are sixth in the standings (-8 Milan, -3 Inter, -2 Juve and Napoli, -1 Sassuolo). We will go to Sofia to try some good players and some experiments. The feeling is that in the long run we will have great satisfactions, both because the team is strong and has shown that the Napoli match was just an exception, and because the Suarez case is taking a precise direction (and obviously I won't add anything else because investigations are still ongoing). Let's continue with our walk: we will take away a lot of satisfaction. Daje Roma!

Giordano Sepi