Gary Neville deleted a tweet branding Roma “a disgrace” after Jose Mourinho’s side claimed their defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League final was “unjust”.
Roma were beaten 4-1 on penalties by the Europa League specialists in Budapest after a feisty match ended 1-1 following extra-time. Paulo Dybala opened the scoring for Roma, slotting in from a through ball before an own goal from Gianluca Mancini levelled things in the second half.
Both sides hit the woodwork in a match that lasted a whopping 147 minutes due to the number of incidents for referee Anthony Taylor to deal with. Mourinho was furious with the English official, who he approached after the game to label a “f***ing disgrace” following a few contentious calls.
Taylor ordered a retake on Gonzalo Montiel’s penalty after Roma goalkeeper Rui Patricio came off his line to save the initial effort. Montiel scored the second time around to win the game, while Mourinho felt Erik Lamela should not have been on the pitch to score in the shoot-out either.
It was a tempestuous night in Budapest that was built in Mourinho’s image, with his side playing a cautious and cynical brand of football and frequently surrounding the referee. Former United defender Neville clearly felt the Italian team and their manager were to blame for the controversy, not Taylor.
“Roma were a disgrace,” he tweeted at 7.39am on Thursday. Neville later deleted the post and has not tweeted anything else about the game.
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Mourinho was typically busy on the sidelines, constantly jumping up to protest against decisions made by Taylor. The Englishman overturned a penalty in Sevilla’s favour following a VAR check which showed Roger Ibanez got a touch on the ball when challenging Lucas Ocampos.
Taylor, who waved away two Roma penalty appeals for a high foot and a handball, dished out 13 yellow cards to player, as well as one to Mourinho. His performance was highlighted by Mourinho in an emotional post-match interview.
“Each of us react in a different way, one cries another doesn’t, but the truth is we are all very sad. We return dead tired, dead with feeling it is unjust,” he told Sky Sports Italia.
“It was an intense, masculine, vibrant game with a referee who seemed Spanish. It was yellow, yellow, yellow all the time. The injustice is shown by the fact Lamela should’ve had a second yellow, he didn’t, and he converted a penalty in the shoot-out.”
He added: “What I said is we either leave here with the Cup or we leave dead. Well, we’re dead. We’re dead tired physically, dead tired mentally, dead because we think it is an unjust defeat with lots of incidents that are debatable.”
Video footage later showed Mourinho approaching Taylor in an underground carpark to berate him to his face. In that video he appears to call the official a “f***cking disgrace” in English before switching to other languages to carry on his barrage.
