Lazio question penalty ´decision´

Lazio coach Edy Reja claimed his side deserved a penalty in the 1-0 loss to Juventus in the Serie A on Monday.

Reja and right-back Stephan Lichsteiner looked on in disbelief as a penalty appeal was rejected.

Striker Sergio Floccari fell in the box after contact from Giorgio Chiellini, but no spot-kick was awarded.

Lichsteiner was quoted in La Gazzetta dello Sport as saying: “They only give penalties to Roma.”

Roma’s two penalties on Sunday against Bari saw their campaign total reach 13 – a new Serie A club record for the club.

In comparison, Lazio have won just three penalties so far this season in their 35 matches to date.

A Simone Pepe goal in the 88th minute kept Juventus in the hunt for the final Champions League place.

Despite the defeat, the Rome outfit remain in fourth and are favourites to land the final qualifying berth.

Juve lie in the Europa League places, but are only are only four points adrift of Lazio. The Turin side are unbeaten in seven outings.

Reja said his players were speechless at the loss.

“I have to find some strength. My guys in the changing room are all sad and I told them that they should cheer up,” Reja said.

“We must be proud of what we’re doing – in these last games in particular, because we are playing very well. We closed down Juventus very well just like we wanted to do.”

“They never counter-attacked. We pressed them very well.”

“We created some opportunities, but we certainly weren’t lucky or maybe it’s also our fault, I don’t know.”

“What surprises me is that in important games such as this one, a single incident could influence the rest of the championship.”

“The Champions League was at stake. If the referee had given the penalty, maybe we would have scored a goal, or maybe not, but with a player sent off and a penalty maybe we could have taken the lead and won the game and got 63 points and that would have been 80 per cent of our job done.”

Meanwhile, Juventus coach Luigi Delneri questioned Lazio claims that they deserved at least a point.

“How many Lazio shots were on goal tonight? How many? What have they done at the end? How many saves for Buffon?” Delneri asked.

” One shot by Floccari and that’s all, so Lazio played very well and created some good moves, but also Juventus had a good game tonight, because we played with great attention and respect for Lazio, not giving their players many chances.”

“We were very precise and conceded very little or virtually nothing to Lazio who are a team that generally create a lot of chances.”

“That’s why I believe my team played a very good game.”