Juve through to final
ByReuters
Published 13/02/2004 at 09:33 GMT
Inter Milan took aim at referee Emilio Pellegrino after their Italian Cup semi-final defeat on penalties by Juventus on Thursday. Juve, Inter's historic rivals, won 5-4 on penalties after the second leg ended 2-2 after extra-time. The first leg had also f
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Inter had Colombian defender Ivan Cordoba sent off in the 67th minute for a crude late challenge on Juve's European Player of the Year Pavel Nedved and moments later were up in arms after a penalty claim was waved away by Pellegrino.
"The refereeing tonight was unacceptable and after all we did in those two games we are out of the Cup," Inter president Giacinto Facchetti told reporters.
"But I want to congratulate the referee for helping us find our spirit and determination after he left us to play with 10 men."
BITTER DISPUTES
Asked whether Inter would make a formal complaint about the officiating, Facchetti said: "There are institutions that need to control certain things".
There is a long history of bitter disputes between Inter and Juventus surrounding refereeing decisions.
This time attention was focused on the second-half incident when Inter's Turkish midfielder Emre Belozoglu went down in the area under challenge from Juve defender Paolo Montero.
Inter coach Alberto Zaccheroni declined to discuss the specific incidents and chose his words carefully. But he left little doubt about his feelings.
"It is a matter for the club, I can only deal with and talk about on-the-field matters," said Zaccheroni.
"But there were 60,000 people here and millions watching on television, I leave it to them to decide," he added.
"There is a great bitterness because over the two legs, the team deserved more," said the Inter coach.
Juve coach Marcello Lippi said he was delighted with the way his team bounced back from the 4-0 mauling at the hands of AS Roma in Serie A on Sunday.
"It was a positive result but above all a positive display. You can win on penalties playing badly but we did with a good performance," he said.
"There was great determination shown from the start to the end of a long game but it wasn't just about grit. We produced quality, good quality football," said Lippi.
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