Maurizio Sarri demands foreign referees be brought in as Lazio coach slams Serie A standards

Lazio suffered a 2-0 defeat against Inter, with Lautaro Martinez and Ange-Yoan Bonny scoring in either half to hand a defeat to the visitors. Sarri, who fumed after Martinez's challenge on his pupil Mattia Zaccagni, was shown a yellow card by the match official. The Italian winger was also forced off the pitch, and Sarri was annoyed by the risk of Lazio conceding a goal as a result.

Sarri took a dig at the refereeing in Serie A, calling it below par. He said after the Inter game: "Why did I get angry? For one simple reason: Lautaro's foul on Zaccagni deserved a yellow card. If it had, Zaccagni shouldn't have left the pitch. Not only did he not issue a yellow card, he forced Zaccagni off the pitch, and we almost conceded a goal from that side. Even Padre Pio would have gotten angry."

Instead of booking the Argentine forward, the referee showed a yellow card to Sarri for expressing his frustration at the sequence of events. "I don't see any referees up to the task, including tonight's. I hope Serie A can get the help of referees from abroad; they need to be 'rented' there," he said.

He added: "We're paying for something inside the box. We had a few chances, but it's not easy. What positives do I take away? This is a team that's improving. After the first goal, the team recovered and stayed in the game until the end. Let's start again with this mentality."

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Sarri admitted that Inter were the better side in the game as he held off of blaming the officials for his team's defeat, saying: "The referee didn't influence the result. Inter played better than us and would have won regardless of who officiated. When you enter San Siro and concede a goal after two minutes, it becomes tough. We wobbled but got back into the game. We had our chances. It wasn't a disastrous match. It's frustrating because the two goals came from two simple turnovers: the first near the box, the second right after we regained the ball. Perhaps these errors favour the more technical team, but it leaves a bitter taste. The performance was decent.

"We pay for the technical gap; we'll see if we can close it as much as possible. We don't have a traditional striker. Our forwards have other characteristics. The only one could be Castellanos, who can handle himself well in the box; the others play the role differently. Right now, we're paying for that in the area, yet coming to San Siro we still had two or three scoring chances, which isn't easy."

Lazio currently sit ninth in the Serie A standings, having accumulated four wins and three draws in 11 games so far. The defeat to Inter was also their first loss since September, when they went down to Roma. With no continental football this season, Lazio are solely focused on Serie A, trying their best to utilise this season to head back to the European competitions. They will resume action on November 23 against Lecce and then take on Milan in successive games across the domestic league and the Coppa Italia on November 29 and December 4, respectively.

Sarri is hoping that he will be able to enhance his squad in the January transfer window, saying: "They haven't told me yet whether the transfer market is open or not. I think the market is open, but I'm waiting for the official announcement and then we'll make the various decisions as necessary."