And with that, I’m done. Here’s the match report again. Bye!
Roberto De Zerbi has finally emerged from the dressing room, and this is what he’s got to say:
We played a good game. Not great. We didn’t play calm. We wanted to win immediately, without patience. But in the end, I think we have to fight until the end of the season. Leeds played a good game. We hope they play like this also against West Ham. I’m sorry for the penalty we conceded, because Tel had a great game. He’s very young. He showed the right spirit, everyone. I’m happy for the attitude, for the mentality. We didn’t play well, but fighting relegation is like this. You can’t play all games calm. We have to improve and to change the habits, because fighting relegation is different to fighting for the Champions League. But we move on.
I’m lucky because I have a lot of good people inside the dressing room. My players are good player and good people. Sensitive people feel the pressure of what we are fighting for, and can suffer like tonight. Maybe at Villa Park we played better. We played for a big target today. Anyone who played football will understand my words.
Now we have to be positive. We have to work hard. We have the quality to get points and stay up, I think we deserve to stay up. And we’ll fight until the end. When you fight relegation, you have to stay strong, not with the legs but with the head. And to push until the end.
On Mathys Tel:
He’s a talent. I will kiss him and hug him and stop. He doesn’t need too many words. He was sorry for the … it’s not a mistake, but it can happen, for a young player, to make that [decision] in that situation.
And on that Maddison penalty shout:
I think the referee was not in the right condition today. Maybe he was not so calm. I think the [furore] of yesterday in West Ham v Arsenal was tough for everyone, maybe for the referee tonight. He went to me after one minute to say, stay inside [the technical area]. I didn’t understand why. I don’t want to speak about the James Maddison penalty. I didn’t see it and nothing will change now.
