Luciano Spalletti spoke about the lack of credit he feels his team is receiving from the media. Roma got an important 1-3 victory over Inter at the weekend, but Spalletti feels some referee decisions against his team were overlooked.
Roma dominated the game from its beginning and fully deserved the three points. The team has enjoyed another good season. They are second in the league, albeit seven points behind leaders Juventus. Roma is also still playing in the Europa League where, together with Manchester United, they are seen as favorites to win the trophy.
Nainggolan was Roma’s main threat against Inter. A great performance saw him score twice and gave his side a two goal lead. The second goal helped give Inter a well needed energy boost. The Milan side had won their last eight league games and hope to extend the run.
Mauro Icardi scored on 81 minutes and gave hope that Inter could equalize. They continued to add pressure, but Roma stayed dangerous on the counter attack. A penalty decision for Spalletti’s side was to make the victory all too clear. Gary Medel brought down Edin Dzeko in the penalty box. Perotti displayed calm in front of goal and scored from the spot.
The victory sees Roma continue to hope they can take advantage of a possible Juventus slip up . Elsewhere, Inter remain sixth in the league, just outside the Champions League spots and one point behind eternal rivals AC Milan.
Luciano Spalletti after the game condemned some of the referee’s decisions. The manager also talked about how the media may not be giving the credit that Roma is due. Roma has received more penalties than any other Serie A side this season. However Spalletti pointed to another supposed foul in the box against Nainggolan in which the referee did not intervene.
“I don’t know what people are looking for,” he told Mediaset Premium. “Roma won deservedly. People seek all these little incidents and I do not see any foul that Nainggolan made on [Roberto] Gagliardini – he jumped at the wrong time.”
“What interests me is the performance and that shows Roma deserved to win, there is absolutely no doubt about it. All week people have been dragging out pundits and ex-Inter players to talk about penalties. We’re fed up.Last year, I had one penalty in 19 games, but I never compared with the records of the other teams. We won anyway.”
“Inter tried to create all this controversy throughout the week and lay the groundwork. Penalties are not automatically points. Inter are a great team, you just have to look at their players. They play good football and showed strong mentality. That’s all fine. They can lose. Roma played well and did not rob anyone of anything.”
Nainggolan, the man of the match, also talked about his team’s collaborative effort in securing victory:
“We are proving that we deserve to be where we are. We won against a great team and it was fully deserved. I do what the coach asks of me. I do well because I have a team working with me. Without the team, I am nobody.”
