Mourinho defends Juventus taunts after ‘fantastic victory’
TURIN/MANCHESTER (Reuters) – Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho defended his taunting of Juventus supporters after his side’s sensational late revival, which saw them grab a 2-1 win over the Italians and boost their chances of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Former United player Cristiano Ronaldo had given Juventus a deserved lead in the second half but despite being outplayed for almost the entirety of the game, United struck back with a free kick from Juan Mata in the 86th minute and a scrappy own goal in stoppage time which UEFA credited to Leonardo Bonucci.
“If you understand Italian you will know that I was insulted by them for 90 minutes. I didn’t offend anyone, I just made a gesture to tell them that I wanted to hear them louder,” Mourinho told reporters after cupping his ear to the home fans at the final whistle, prompting a cascade of howling whistles.
“I probably shouldn’t have done it, and with a cool head I wouldn’t have. But with my family insulted, including my Inter Milan family, I reacted like this.”
When quizzed in a postmatch interview about what had prompted his gesture to the Juventus fans and animated confrontation with some of their players after the game, Mourinho appeared to send a thinly veiled message to English football’s organizing body.
“Do you understand Italian? Then maybe ask the FA to translate for you,” he said.
Comical penalty
Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling apologized to Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai after winning a comical penalty that was clearly not a foul in Wednesday’s 6-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk.
With City 1-0 up in the first half, Sterling tripped over as he tried to dig his foot under the ball to chip Donetsk keeper Andriy Pyatov.
There was no player challenging him, let alone any contact, yet the experienced Kassai pointed to the spot.
“I went to chip the ball and don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel contact. I scuffed the ball. Apologies to the ref,” Sterling said after the game.
Shakhtar’s Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca laughed when he was asked about the decision.
“It is difficult to speak about a penalty after a result like that – but it’s ridiculous, that’s all I can say,” he said.“Everyone saw it, but it is not because of the penalty we lost the game.”
City manager Pep Guardiola agreed that the referee had got it badly wrong and said the incident highlighted the need for the video assistant referee system to be introduced.
“We realized it wasn’t a penalty. We don’t like to score in that situation,” said Guardiola, who conceded Sterling could have told the referee at the time.