Stadio, 05/02/01 18:30

PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER ROMA.

It's certain that he was angry inside, but at the press conference Gianluca Pagliuca appeared calm and relaxed. The second home loss felt bitter above all because of the referee’s decisions. And Gianluca said it clearly:
-You have seen the game, we were under very quickly, and then we were left in ten, but we did not give up. We have given a great proof of our character. We could have equalized, and it would not have been a scandal, and we could have scored other goals. What I don’t like is that we’re never given what we objectively deserve on the field, only what we’re expected to receive. Nobody’s asking for favors but it’s not even fair to be punished without any reason. Roma played better than we did, it gave us a lot of trouble, and exactly because of this I didn’t think it was logical to just give them a green light all the way. I already saw everything on the field, I have seen the replays on TV, and there is no doubt. Rinaldi had a clear hand ball in the penalty area, he stopped the ball with his arm, so we should have gotten a penalty. We were still all on the field, and it’s permissible to think that Signori would have put in an equalizer. And maybe it would have ended up even worse, but we could have had a very different view of the entire game.
-Besides Rinaldi’s hand ball, there was a foul on Lima worthy of a penalty.
-That was a clear penalty as well. We were in the last minute of the game, Lima had a great chance when he came near the goal, and they brought him down badly. I’m not the only one who says so. What seems strange to me is this continuous series of decisions that go against us. Last Sunday with Inter we were not given other clear penalties, with Roma the same thing was repeated. There are negative analogies between these two games, precisely the penalties which were not given.
-Among so many negative aspects, do you have any positive remarks in view of next Saturday’s game against Milan at San Siro?
-It seems to me that Milan is in a difficult period. We, especially in the second half, have shown great vitality. If we repeat this performance at the San Siro we can hope for a good result. It will be important not to get anyone sent off. Binotto’s ejection hurt us, but even though we played one man down for an hour, we commanded respect. We diminished Roma’s lead and we even could have equalized. It’s true that with their counter-attacks we were at risk, but it’s also true that Roma felt some chills when we applied pressing and attacked. If I could have stopped the penalty...
-Batistuta didn’t play a great game and even his penalty was not so good.
-I was very close to stopping it. He shot right for the middle, very hard; but the ball bounced a little on the ground. Since everything was going wrong, I even got some mud in the face.
-The calendar is terrible, you have so many hard games without any break.
-I hope we’ll repeat our exploits from the first half of the championship when we were not hoping for many points and instead we found our game and found ourselves at the top of the rankings. It was difficult to play after the tragedy that happened, but we managed it, even showing great character. It’s too bad it had to be Roma; I’m sure we would have won against a weaker teams
-Your confidence margin of points is disappearing quickly.
-We are not worried, even though we know that we need to start getting points again soon. We’re not walking with our eyes in the clouds, we know that in this championship you can have bitter surprises. We always remember that a team like Bologna, that can fight and be persistent, will always be able to stay in Serie A. There is still a margin of confidence and we can extend it. It’s true that Milan is next; then Napoli at home; Regio Calabria, Lazio at Bologna, then Fiorentina and Parma away. A line-up that can send chills down your back, but what really counts is persistence, the will to win. And you can be certain that it has not left us. Let’s think about Milan now, if we do well at San Siro even the calendar will look very different to us.

Translated by JuliaTarasova