Luciano Spalletti has criticised Inter coach Cristian Chivu for his comments about Pierre Kalulu following the weekend's tense "Derby d'Italia" in Serie A, but has also defended Alessandro Bastoni despite his role in the Juventus player's sending off.
Inter defeated Juventus 3-2 in a very heated "Derby d'Italia" in Serie A over the weekend, a match that was not without controversy.
Most importantly, Juventus' Kalulu was wrongly sent off after a second yellow card in the 42nd minute.
Italian newspapers described the first cartoon as harsh, while the second as "absurd" and "nonexistent."
This is because Inter's Bastoni was deemed to have simulated to send Kalulu off with a red card.
However, since it was a second yellow card and not a straight red card, VAR could not intervene.
For the same reason, Bastoni will not be punished with retrospective measures, even though he had a yellow card and would have been sent off if referee Federico La Penna had shown him a second yellow card.
The Juventus camp was furious with Kalulu's sending off. Spalletti and Juventus CEO Damien Comolli were seen confronting referee La Penna in the tunnel after the match.
Juventus sent Comolli and director Giorgio Chiellini to speak to the media after the match, which caused Spalletti not to immediately comment.
He finally spoke at the press conference ahead of the Champions League play-off match against Galatasaray on Monday evening.
Spalletti was not happy with Chivu's decision to criticize Kalulu after the match.
Chivu had stated that it was a light contact, but contact nonetheless, adding that Kalulu as an experienced player should have avoided situations that force the referee to make a decision.
In response, Spalletti said: "I don't want to comment on the words of Elkann and the directors. I can say that Pierre is a good guy and a correct person, and I didn't expect an opposing coach to criticize him in that way. That would put me in a position to talk about Inter players and I don't want to do that."
"Simulation is an insult to football and my job is to take the team to a level where simulation does not allow others to decide games for us. It is not important what happens, but how we react. We had to turn the situation around. We have to improve if we do not want to concede that goal and we wanted to score immediately after it. These are tests of maturity. Tomorrow will be a test of our maturity," he added.
After the match, there were calls for Bastoni to leave the Italian national team due to unsportsmanlike conduct.
As a former Italy coach, Spalletti was asked about this and defended Bastoni: "Absolutely, Gattuso should be free to invite whoever he wants. Unfortunately I am no longer the national team coach and I will leave that situation to him. We have a strong coach and we should let him do what he wants."/Express newspaper/
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