MILANL: Coach Rudi Garcia lashed out at Serie A officials for refusing to halt play as Roma dropped two precious points in a rain-lashed 2-2 draw away to Bologna that he likened to a match of "water polo with feet".
Bologna striker Mattia Destro returned to haunt his former club when he hit a last-gasp leveller from the spot to secure a share of the spoils for Roberto Donadoni's men at the Dall'Ara stadium.
But Garcia, whose side will try to maintain their Champions League last 16 hopes by taking at least a point from Barcelona at the Nou Camp on Tuesday, said the match should not have been played on a pitch that had been hit with heavy rain since Saturday morning.
"There's not much to say about this game because it wasn't a game of football out there," Garcia said.
"It was a parody of football."
Asked if the match should have been stopped, he added: "Yes, because you can't play football in conditions like these.
"Even when we were 2-1 up I'd have been happy for them to suspend the game. It was more like playing water polo with feet than football."
Roma made the short trip north only one point off leaders Fiorentina and second-placed Inter Milan and looking to maintain their title push and glean some confidence ahead of Tuesday's clash in Spain.
In the end, the Giallorossi were left lamenting dropping two precious points that could see them drop down the standings after the remainder of the Serie A fixtures this weekend.
Roma, missing injured forwards Gervinho and Mohamed Salah, had to forget all hope of playing a slick passing game and went behind to an Adam Masina strike on 14 minutes.
The visitors fought their way back into contention for the win when Miralem Pjanic, seven minutes after the restart, then Edin Dzeko struck from the spot to give the visitors a 2-1 lead with 18 minutes left on the clock.
But disaster struck for Roma when right-back Vasilis Torosidis, a late replacement for Maicon, completely misjudged his challenge on Emanuele Giaccherini inside the area.
Destro stepped up to beat Wojciech Szczesny in the Roma goal, incensing the visitors further when he spent most of the remaining two minutes celebrating his leveller.
Roma moved one place up to second although Garcia's men risk dropping down the table depending on how Inter, Fiorentina and Napoli fare against Frosinone, Empoli and Verona respectively.
The only positive Frenchman Garcia took from the game was hearing France's national anthem, 'La Marseillaise', played before kick-off.
It was to be played at all Serie A stadiums this weekend to commemorate the 130 victims of last week's terror attacks in Paris.
"It was a nice gesture that all the stadiums in Italy played the French national anthem today. Definitely," said Garcia.
In Saturday's late game champions Juventus host AC Milan looking to close their nine-point gap to Fiorentina.
Comments
Comments are closed.