After suffering from weeks of illness, suspensions, and injuries, AS Roma somehow managed to pull off a draw with Hellas Verona.
With two quick goals from Verona’s Antonin Barak and Adrien Tameze, Roma’s dream of Europe was left in a turbulent stage.
However, despite a faltering first half, the hosts pulled themselves back in the second half after 18-year-old Cristian Volpato came off the bench and scored his first senior goal, followed by 19-year-old Edoardo Bove’s 84th-minute stunner.
To top all this chaos, Jose Mourinho was sent off in the stoppage time after making gestures towards the referee and kicking the ball in frustration.
The Portuguese coach was visibly frustrated throughout the game, and he surely didn’t hesitate to hide his feelings.
Mourinho made a telephonic gesture towards referee Luca Pairetto towards the end of the match.
While the peculiar gesture remained incomprehensible for most, some users pointed out that this may have been a dig at Pairetto’s father, Pierluigi. The latter was involved in the Calciopoli refereeing scandal that scarred Italian football in 2006.
Mourinho made a ‘Telephone’ gesture at referee Pairetto,
— MourinhoXtra™ (@Mourinho_Xtra) February 19, 2022
Refering to his father, a referee, who was banned as part of Calciopoli (match fixing scandal in 2006)
Jose knows Serie A pic.twitter.com/gwskyDZ4xa
Soon after this, Mourinho kicked the ball away in frustration and was sent off with a red card.
Mourinho getting sent off? Grass is green. I can’t help but love the bloke.
— HLTCO (@HLTCO) February 19, 2022
pic.twitter.com/j9KAMSEax8
However, this classic Mourinho session wasn’t over yet. The 59-year-old declined to speak to the media and instead posted a series of pictures on Instagram.
With pictures of him holding and kicking the ball away, he wrote : “Picture 1 ball possession-picture 2 direct football-picture 3 I love this people and for them I fight-picture 4 I don’t talk is better to go home and have a nice dinner. Have a good sunday.”
When it comes to Mourinho in a match, things can never be anything less than entertaining.
The Roman giants are now in a four non-winning drought, the worst in the entire season. In Serie A, the Giallorossi are floating in the sixth spot with four points away from the top four.
