Updated at 22.52
MASSIMILIANO ALLEGRI bemoaned Juventus striker Moise Kean being sent off just 40 seconds after coming off the bench in his team’s damaging 1-0 defeat at Roma on Sunday.
Kean lost his head after a tussle with match-winner Gianluca Mancini, inexplicably booting the Italy defender to the ground and then heading for the tunnel to the delight of the home fans.
“In the last few minutes, he could have helped us. He made a mistake, he apologised but he made a mistake because he put the team in difficulty,” Allegri said to DAZN.
“He needs to learn from this, when you come on you can make a difference. Apart from anything else, it was a foul to us before and he just reacted wrongly.
“It’s not a question of frustration, Kean made a mistake, and that’s it.”
Kean’s rapid red card was not the fastest in Serie A history however, that honour being reserved for Giulio Migliaccio who lasted just 32 seconds of Atalanta’s win over Palermo in 2015.
Mancini shot Roma fourth, 12 points ahead of Juve who have little hope of Champions League football next season unless their 15-point penalty for illicit transfer activity is overturned on appeal.
Juve’s only realistic route of entering Europe’s top competition is by winning the Europa League, with the first leg of their last-16 tie with Freiburg coming up in Turin on Thursday.
- Inter hold second spot -
Goals in each half from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Lautaro Martinez gave Inter the points against promoted Lecce and slightly closed the giant gap between them and Napoli to 15 points.
However, the league title is still a distant hope despite Napoli’s shock home defeat to Lazio on Friday night, Inter’s main concern being Champions League football next season.
“We were focused and keep going, and that is how you win games,” said coach Simone Inzaghi.
“Lecce are aggressive and press hard, we really had to move off the ball to create space. We did really well.”
Lecce, in 15th, have been a thorn in the side of Italy’s big boys this season but offered very little at a subdued San Siro.
Defeat didn’t have much impact on Lecce’s survival hopes as they are nine points above Verona, who are just inside the relegation zone and drew 0-0 with fellow strugglers Spezia earlier on Sunday.
Verona are three points behind a Spezia team hovering dangerously above the drop zone and six ahead of troubled bottom side Sampdoria.
Without a win in nine and weighed down by financial problems, Samp only managed a goalless draw with Salernitana in Sunday’s early match.
Salernitana are also trying to beat the drop and the uneventful stalemate in Genoa kept Paulo Sousa’s side seven points ahead of Verona.
