Mourinho threatens legal action against fourth official after being sent off in Roma loss

By Sports Desk February 28, 2023

Jose Mourinho has threatened legal action against fourth official Marco Serra after the Portuguese was sent off in Roma's 2-1 Serie A loss at Cremonese on Tuesday.

Mourinho's side fluffed the chance to move up to second on the league table, going home without any points after Daniel Ciofani's 83rd-minute winner from the penalty spot.

Not for the first time this season, the Roma boss was given his marching orders by referee Marco Piccinini shortly after half-time with his side 1-0 down following a row on the sidelines with Serra.

"I am emotional, but not crazy," Mourinho told DAZN. "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 of the game, I went to speak to them. Piccinini, who was the fourth official in the last game when I was sent off, told me to apologise to Serra.

"I told Serra he should have the courage to explain what happened, but he had memory problems."

Mourinho lamented his side's display with the race for the top four wide open ahead of the Giallorossi's clash with Juventus on Sunday.

"We were a little unlucky, conceding two goals on their one and a half chances," he said. "The responsibility is ours. We lacked intensity, should’ve killed off the game straight away.

"I am taking it one game at a time. I cannot leave this game behind now, I cannot even think about Sunday. There is frustration, which obliges me to analyse. It is a pity this thing happened with Serra: I respect someone as much as they respect me."

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    PLAYERS TO WATCH

    Aston Villa - Ollie Watkins

    Watkins has failed to score in back-to-back games in all competitions for Villa, with his blank against Brighton leaving him one short of the 20-goal mark in the Premier League this season.

    The last Villa player to reach that mark in a top-flight campaign was Peter Withe in 1980-81.

    The omens are certainly good, as only against Brighton (six) - ironically - has Watkins scored more goals in the competition than he has against Liverpool (five).

    Liverpool - Mohamed Salah

    Salah returned to the Liverpool starting line-up last weekend and both scored and assisted in the 4-2 win over Tottenham.

    The Egyptian has now both scored and assisted in four different Premier League games this season - only Chelsea's Cole Palmer (five) has done so more often.

    Across his entire Premier League career, Salah has done so 31 times in total, with that a tally only Wayne Rooney (36) and Thierry Henry (32) can better.

    MATCH PREDICTION - LIVERPOOL WIN

    Villa lost 1-0 to Brighton in their most recent league game, but they have not lost successive Premier League matches since May last year.

    Liverpool were 4-2 winners against Tottenham last time out, meanwhile, and have lost just one of their past 26 league games played in May.

    This is a fixture the Reds tend to do well in, however, as they have lost just once and won 10 times in their past 12 league games with Villa.

    Indeed, Liverpool have won more Premier League away games against Villa than they have any other opponents (16).

    Historically speaking, meanwhile, Liverpool have lost only one of their eight final away league games under Klopp, last doing so in 2018.

    OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

    Aston Villa - 27.1%

    Draw - 27.7%

    Liverpool - 45.2%

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