Renato Gaúcho disagrees with Admar Lopes regarding the refereeing in the Cruzeiro vs. Vasco match.

Coach expresses optimism about his work after draw at Mineirão.

After the 3-3 draw between Cruzeiro and Vasco this Sunday (15) , at Mineirão, in Belo Horizonte (MG), the Cruz-maltino football director, Admar Lopes, asked to speak to criticize the refereeing of Lucas Paulo Torezin (PR). Soon after, however, coach Renato Gaúcho presented a very different view on the same subject, except for the disagreement regarding the eleven minutes added by the referee.

“I’m speaking on behalf of Vasco to say that Lucas Torezin’s performance today was completely unacceptable. It’s not the first time he’s officiated away games with this tendency to be a home-biased referee. There was a clear red card offense for a foul on Tchê Tchê that he didn’t even go to VAR for, in addition to clear penalties on Robert Renan and Andrés Gómez. A home-biased refereeing performance, even on silly fouls, and in the end he even added eleven minutes of stoppage time for no reason. I regret that Brazilian football has referees like this. The era of home-biased referees ended in the 80s, today this is unacceptable,” the director blasted.

“I don’t usually talk about refereeing, but I think he did well in the game, I just didn’t understand the amount of added time. That’s the only thing I saw as excessive. Otherwise, he had a good game, he didn’t make a serious mistake that harmed the Vasco team,” said the coach.

Overview of the result:

— First of all, I already congratulated my team for their great effort. We knew Cruzeiro would put a lot of pressure on us, especially given their position in the championship. We didn’t start so well, but they didn’t have that many chances, apart from the goal. We came back stronger in the second half, managed to equalize and turn the game around. We conceded the equalizer and still managed to score a third goal. Unfortunately, we conceded the equalizer again in stoppage time.

Optimism regarding the continuation of work at Vasco:

“What I can say is congratulate my group. It’s not easy to face Cruzeiro’s high-quality team here at Mineirão. Unfortunately, we lost Barros due to his expulsion. It’s not easy. And even so, we still managed to turn the game around before conceding the equalizer. We could have come away with all three points, but given the circumstances, it was a good result. It’s important to get points away from home. We didn’t have much time to train, we played twice under my command, and against two teams that could be title contenders. The team and the fans deserve congratulations. The fans are satisfied with what the team has been producing, especially in terms of commitment.”

Change of attitude in the second half:

— We had to play. We were marking, but we weren’t playing with the ball. That’s the confidence I passed on to them at halftime. Courage to make plays, teammates have to step up and players have to get into the box. The team loosened up a bit more, so much so that we managed to turn the game around. In the end, there was that feeling that we could have won. But we’re not going to condemn ourselves, we faced a great team, with a great squad, that will soon be out of the relegation zone. Playing with ten men isn’t easy, we tried to defend, to close down spaces.

Substitution of Vasco’s attacking trio:

“With one player less, they started bringing on attacking players. Andrés Gómez already had a yellow card, so I took him off. Nuno Moreira was already quite tired. I knew they would play down the wings, so I practically formed a back five. We did the right thing, so much so that we even managed another goal, but unfortunately we made mistakes in marking and conceded the equalizer. The coach has to think; it’s no use putting a bunch of men up front and allowing two-on-one situations, giving space to the opponent. We conceded three headed goals, even trying to prevent the ball from reaching the area. We’re on the right track; we won’t fix everything overnight. It’s step by step. With the fans’ help, we’ll climb the table.”