🚨Carlo Ancelotti on what he said to the referee that led to his red card during Brazil’s 3-2 defeat to Japan:
🗣️ “I respect Japan a lot. They are a very good footballing team, and I have no problem accepting that they beat us.
But there is a level to which you can accept a defeat, even in a friendly.
We were 2-0 down, we came back, Vini scored two incredible goals and suddenly the whole feeling of the game changed.
At that point, I genuinely believed we were going to win.
Japan were under pressure, we were attacking, and the players had completely changed their mentality.
Then comes the final minute.
They win the ball and start the attack that leads to the third goal.
And from our bench, we immediately felt there was a foul on João Gomes in the build-up.
I’m not saying this because we lost.
I’m saying it because when you have VAR, when you have officials watching the game from different angles, you expect those important moments to be examined properly.
The referee allows the game to continue.
The ball goes into our box.
They score.
And immediately you see the reaction from our players.
Raphinha is furious. The bench is furious. I’m furious.
Because we are looking at the same incident and thinking, ‘How has that been missed?’
I stayed on the bench for a moment because I wanted to understand what the referee had seen.
Then I walked towards him.
I didn’t go there screaming.
I asked him, ‘Referee, what did you see on the challenge?’
He looked at me and said, ‘There was nothing.’
I said, ‘Nothing?’
Then I told him, ‘If you didn’t see it clearly, that is exactly why VAR exists.’
He didn’t like that.
I said, ‘You have another team of officials looking at the same situation. Use them.’
Maybe I should have chosen different words.
Maybe.
But I was not insulting him.
I was asking him to explain the decision.
Then I said something I probably should not have said.
I told him, ‘If you are not sure about the decision, ask the people watching it from every angle before you decide the game.’
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
And then he showed me the red card.
At that moment I thought, ‘Okay, so now I am the problem.’
Raphinha gets sent off as well because he was protesting.
And suddenly we have lost the match, lost our heads, and have two red cards after a goal we believe should never have been allowed to develop in the first place.
I can accept losing to Japan.
Of course I can.
They played well. They punished our mistakes. That is football.
What I cannot easily accept is feeling that the referee became part of the story when he should simply have been the person controlling it.
I have lost finals.
I have lost Champions League games.
I have lost matches where my team played terribly.
You shake hands and you move on.
But when you lose because you believe a decisive incident was not properly judged, it is different.
Especially when VAR is there.
We didn’t ask the referee to give Brazil a favour.
We asked him to give us the correct decision.
Maybe he watches it again and still says there was no foul.
Then I accept it.
But don’t tell me there was nothing to discuss when the entire Brazil bench is standing there asking the same question.
That is what frustrated me.
And maybe I was too emotional.
Maybe the red card was deserved.
I can accept that too.
But I will never accept that because it was a friendly, the players should stop caring.
For Brazil, there is no such thing as a meaningless game.
We came back from 2-0 down because the players cared.
We fought.
We believed.
We had the match in our hands.
Then one decision, one attack, one goal and everything changes.
So yes, I respect Japan.
I respect their victory.
But I also believe Brazil deserved the right to finish that game without wondering whether the decisive moment had been judged correctly.
And if asking that question gets me a red card, then give me the red card.
But don’t ask me to pretend I didn’t see what I saw.”