Gasperini between joy and fury after 3-1 Roma victory

Gian Piero Gasperini explains his wild celebrations after Evan Ferguson’s first Roma goal against Cremonese, but hits out at the fourth official for being ‘a terrible presence who behaved badly.’

The coach had a fiery experience on the touchline during this 3-1 victory at the Stadio Zini, as he was sent off for dissent and immediately afterwards was walking up towards the Roma directors when Ferguson scored for 2-0.

Gasp was seen celebrating wildly at the Republic of Ireland international finally getting his first goal for the club.

“We are all happy for Ferguson, as he had been waiting for this a long time, but it was also important because it doubled our lead,” Gasperini told DAZN Italia.

“We had been playing well and with very good opportunities, so this goal made us realise we were on the right path to victory.”

Amid the injury crisis with Ferguson only fit for the bench, Gasperini changed things up with a versatile front three of Matias Soulé, Tommaso Baldanzi and Lorenzo Pellegrini.

“I really liked Baldanzi and the way we moved in attack, working on quick passes. We made a few mistakes at first, but then started to play with quality. Baldanzi might have atypical characteristics, but you can play as a centre-forward with these qualities.

“When you score this type of goal, it means you have turned a corner. We have more belief now and try more interesting things to score goals.”

Gasperini is not a huge fan of squad rotation, especially when it comes to the five substitutions.

“I use the substitutions if they are available, but I am in all honesty not enthusiastic about it. This came out after COVID and then remained. It might make the game more balanced and even, but also less exciting.”

Although he is no stranger to a red card, Gasperini was particularly furious at his dismissal this afternoon, receiving the first yellow card, repeatedly stating “I didn’t say anything” until he immediately saw a second booking.

“I was angry about a lot of things in the space of 10 minutes towards half-time, then after the break I said nothing for the foul on Mancini. I didn’t say a word. The fourth official could’ve punished me for my protests in the penalty incident, fine, but not the second half,” responded the Roma coach.

“He made two huge mistakes there, as if he needed to say something, it should’ve been in the first half. He called the referee over twice about me, he already has precious little to do on the touchline, so the fourth official made himself a terrible presence. He behaved really badly this time.”

Gasperini was cheered by being shown some graffiti of him dressed as a witch stewing up a brew made of grit, heart and sweat to bring Roma success.

“That’s wonderful, but disconcerting! The ingredients are fantastic, I agree they are the things that we need, and then we can add a little spice and salt.

“We want to keep playing like this, I already said yesterday that it’s only right to dream in these positions, knowing that very few dreams come true in the end. We’re trying to keep the dream going for a while longer.”