Jose Mourinho slams ‘famous’ VAR referee after Fenerbahce draw

Fenerbahce coach Jose Mourinho hit out at VAR referee Paolo Mazzoleni following Thursday’s goalless draw with Lyon in the Europa League.

Mourinho believed Lyon defender Saël Kumbedi was lucky on two occasions to have escaped without being shown a red card.

According to Mourinho, Kumbedi should have been given his marching orders in the 31st minute following a harsh challenge on Fenerbahce midfielder Sebastian Szymański. He was only given a yellow card with VAR not intervening.

“The referee made a mistake by giving just a yellow card to Kumbedi for the foul on Szymański,” Mourinho said after the game.

“The VAR is there to help the referee when the referee makes a mistake and he didn’t call him, because if the referee goes to the screen he gives the red card. It was Mr. Paolo Mazzoleni, very famous in Italy by the way, that didn’t call the referee. The referee’s mistakes on the pitch are acceptable, the VAR is there to work and it didn’t.”

VAR was, however, used before half-time after Lyon defender Moussa Niakhaté was shown a red card by referee Simone Sozza for a sliding challenge on Fenerbahce’s Irfan Can Kahveci. Sozza overturned his initial decision to a yellow card after reviewing it.

“When the referee gave the red card to Niakhaté, Mr. Mazzoleni now decided to do his job well and he called the referee,” Mourinho said. “The referee went to the screen and he made the correct decision.”

Mourinho believes Kumbedi should have been shown a second yellow card in the second half for a foul on Szymański that was not given. Kumbedi was then substituted in the 68th minute.

“Kumbedi made a grabbing by the neck kind of UFC move to Szymański, who was going in the direction of goal,” Mourinho said. “This would have been a second yellow card and it should have been a red card, so big mistakes. It’s impossible to speak about the game without speaking about this.”

Thursday’s result left Mourinho’s side with nine points from seven games heading into the last group game against FC Midtjylland on Jan. 30.

Fenerbahce need a positive result in Denmark to qualify for the next stage of the Europa League but will be without several key players, including Sofyan Amrabat, due to suspension.

“We are in trouble at this moment to qualify,” Mourinho admitted. “Nine points may or may not be enough. It’s still in our hands but right now in Europe, it’s difficult for us because we are short of players.

“The only thing I know is that we have to go to Midtjylland and we have to fight for a result to qualify. We will go with 11 players, I don’t think we will have many more. We don’t have right-backs, we don’t have left-backs, we don’t have midfielders but we will have 11 guys fighting for the result and I’m hopeful that we can do it.

“We cannot be waiting for a combination of other results, we have to go for our result and we will. We have many players that are suspended.”

Should his team progress, Mourinho anticipates a stronger Fenerbahce.

Milan Škriniar and Filip Kostić have joined on loan from Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus respectively, while Diego Carlos has signed permanently from Aston Villa

“We have one team now and we will have another team if we get through,” Mourinho added. “Imagine this team with Škriniar, Diego Carlos, Kostić, it’s a completely different team.”