The assistant manager of Italian club AS Roma Salvatore Foti was red carded for striking a player of Feyenoord in their Europa League quarter-final clash.
Jose Mourinho and his side welcomed the Dutch side to the Stadio Olimpico for the second leg of the European battle on Thursday night.
That resulted in Mourinho being a man short in the dug out when his assistant unnecessarily went head-to-head with Santiago Gimenez.
Salvatore Foti eventually hit the Mexican attacker as he attempted to stop Gimenez from picking the ball after it ran out of play.
Mourinho’s assistant inadvertently struck the Feyenoord forward with his left hand as he endeavored to pull him away from the ball.
Gimenez went down instantly and centre referee Anthony Taylor didn’t waste any time in brandishing Salvatore Foti a red card for the incident.
Ex-Sampdoria attacker Foti is not new to being sent off on the touchline as he was shown a red card in Roma’s surprising Italian cup loss to Cremonese in February for “constantly insulting the referee”.
He was also penalized for “threatening a director of the opposing side” and staying back to wait for the referee outside of his dressing room.
Foti was given a one-month ban in February
Salvatore Foti was handed a one-month ban from the dugout due to his troubles and that left him in the stands for four Serie A games.
The encounter involving Roma and Feyenoord proceeded to extra-time after a 2-1 win for the home side, which ultimately brought the game to parity at 2-2.
Leonardo Spinazzola opened the scoring for AS Roma on the 60th minute to level the encounter before Igor Paixao equalized on the day for the away side, who were on the verge of qualifying for the Semis until Paulo Dybala’s goal took the game to extra time with an 89th-minute winner.
Former AC Milan winger Stephan El Shaarawy netted an additional goal for Roma in the first minute of extra-time after connecting to a cross sent in by Tammy Abraham.
And Lorenzo Pellegrini completed Roma’s passage to the semis with a tap-in after reacting quickest to a saved Tammy Abraham strike.
When questioned by a Dutch journalist about what his side needed to do to mount a comeback ahead of the encounter after the first leg, the Portuguese legendary coach responded:
“To score goals. To put the ball in the net. It is as simple as that. Of course, we had our chances, but football is not about chances. It’s about scoring goals.”
And it seemed Mourinho had implemented that to the latter against Feyenoord at the Stadio Olimpico after they thumped the Dutch side by 4-1.
AS Roma sit 4th on the Italian Serie A with 56 points gathered from 30 games and they look to be in great position to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Jose Mourinho is on the verge of leading the Italian side to another final and trophy after Roma lifted the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2022 defeating Feyenoord by a lone goal in the final.
