Sporting Lisbon's Carlos Freitas believes that Rinaudo‘s sending off against Guimarães was unjust
Sporting Lisbon’s http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carlos-c8346 Freitas has claimed that Rinaudo’s sending off against Vitoria Guimarães was unjust but the team managed to cope with it very well and eventually won the away tie at Estadio D. Afonso Henriques.
The Lions travelled to play Vitoria Guimarães away from home in this weekend’s Portuguese Primeira Liga fixture. Despite being reduced to 10 men, they were able to walk with all three points.
Domingos Paciência’s men were the odds-on favourites to be the winners in this one due to the woeful form of their opponents. However, the relatively easy draw was made quite a task after http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Argentina-c2841 International, Fito Rinaudo, was given his marching orders.
The midfielder was sent off on the 22nd minute mark by the referee, after his tackle on Maranhao had been judged to be illegal.
Sporting had already taken the lead through http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Diego-Capel-c11100 in the 7th minute and had to defend the nervy score-line with 10 men on the pitch throughout most of the match.
While their task was a daunting one, especially given that they were the away team, the Lisbon outfit were able to deal with the threat posed by Vitoria and managed to keep things under wrap until the final whistle.
Although they were able to taste victory, Sporting general manager, Carlos Freitas, believes that Rinaudo should not have been sent-off as the tackle was misjudged.
"It was a split ball and is a forced decision. It seems to me that there were similar entries throughout the game but they did not have the same decision. I do not make value judgments, but this time the trial was too tight," he said.
The official also lavished praise on his team’s ability to cope with the numerical disadvantage and said that the Sportinguistas had performed admirably without a player for the second time in one week.
“We had less than 72 hours to recover but we came back to finish the match with ten players just like the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lazio-c39775 match. I can say that our mission has been accomplished and we have gained three important points. That is our goal in every game,” Carlos Freitas said.
Sporting Lisbon now play Vaslui in the UEFA Europa League on October 20, 2011, after the International break.
Tags: