Sinisa Mihajlovic ‘cannot understand’ the decision to send Aaron Hickey off after 17 minutes and Bologna have ‘regrets’ after the Sassuolo draw.
It wasn’t a happy birthday for the Serbian tactician, because his team was down to 10 men for over 70 minutes.
“What I feel most is anger. When it was 11 against 11, we were dominating. The red card changed everything, but we defended well and barely ran any risks,” the coach told DAZN.
Sinisa Mihajlovic ‘cannot understand’ the decision to send Aaron Hickey off after 17 minutes and Bologna have ‘regrets’ after the Sassuolo draw.
It wasn’t a happy birthday for the Serbian tactician, because his team was down to 10 men for over 70 minutes.
“What I feel most is anger. When it was 11 against 11, we were dominating. The red card changed everything, but we defended well and barely ran any risks,” the coach told DAZN.
“I cannot understand how a referee can not even give a foul and then change it several minutes later to a red card. I don’t get it. We had a similar situation with Samir when we were against Udinese, his leg was totally straight and it wasn’t even a yellow card.
“Nobody had complained about the foul, it was all done by the VAR. I am just glad we proved that we were a team and fought to the end.”
Sassuolo managed to equalise with Francesco Caputo, who turned quickly after a ricochet fell into his path, but Bologna parked the bus.
“We were down to 10 against Udinese for a long while and only conceded in stoppages there. What we need to improve when we’re down to 10, and I hope it doesn’t happen often, is to play more.
“We did well defending with 10 men and Sassuolo had a few shots from distance, the goal we conceded was a hopeful effort and a lucky ricochet, but we stayed very deep.
“The way we prepared the game and had started the match, we certainly would’ve done more without that red card. It leaves regrets, especially as last time against Sassuolo we were 3-1 up and lost 4-3. We could’ve had six points against them and got one.
“That’s football for you. It’s true our attitude against Benevento was lacking, so I showed the players a video today before the game telling them the difference between a good performance and a winning one was mentality. It’s not physical, it’s not tactical or technical, it’s the mental attitude.”