Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano could not hide his anger after seeing his side fall to a 4-3 defeat to Inter in the final seconds of their Serie A match yesterday.
The Viola had fought back from 2-0 and 3-2 down and looked to be heading for a point until Henrikh Mkhitaryan bundled in with one of the final kicks of the game, but Italiano claimed that Edin Dzeko had committed a foul in the build-up.
Speaking to Italian television broadcaster DAZN after the final whistle at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, the former Spezia coach blasted the decision not to rule the goal out and insisted that Dzeko had pulled Nikola Milenkovic’s shirt.
“It’s not the first time, and I never argue, but it’s not the first time we’ve lost points for situations on the edge,” Italiano stated.
“I think Dzeko has committed a foul on Milenkovic, the referee evaluates it differently, but I’m sorry because we lose points and positions for certain refereeing decisions.
“There were ten seconds left and that is a foul. Taking that position, the shirt cannot be pulled and the referee has to blow the whistle.”
The coach also expressed his disappointment at seeing Fiorentina come away with nothing after twice fighting back to work their way into the match.
“There is great regret for not getting any points.
“Our aim was to start moving up the league table again, but getting to 3-3 in this way was like a victory, losing it like this hurts.
“We have to find a bit of balance. In the last few matches we have got over the problem of scoring: five in the Conference League, three tonight, one in Lecce.
“We are making some adjustments to the attack, but unfortunately we are complicating things ourselves.
“We need to start pushing hard, even against smaller teams, as we are leaving many points on the road. We must start to go and take them back,” he added.