Aston Villa pair curse ‘soft’ European referees after winless run continues

Aston Villa pair Unai Emery and Ollie Watkins were left rueing the ‘soft’ decisions of European referees after a late winner against Juventus was ruled out.

Morgan Rogers’ stoppage-time goal was ruled out when the video assistant referee deemed Diego Carlos to have fouled goalkeeper Michele di Gregorio in the air.

The contact was minimal but it condemned Villa to a seventh game without victory.

Villa have not won since beating Bologna five weeks ago and have slumped to eighth in the Premier League table and ninth in the Champions League table, which is just outside an automatic qualifying spot.

“I am very happy because we won a point. We played a very competitive match. We were dominating the match to try to get three points,” said Emery.

“The last action is clear. It’s the interpretation of the referee. We know in England, it’s 80% not a foul, but in Europe, maybe not. For me it was harsh. In England, I know it’s not a foul usually, because it was a very soft contact. But in Europe, it could be foul.

“I think the referee, in the beginning, he was giving it as a goal. We have to accept his decision.

“We played a serious match. We played trying to avoid the mistakes we made from the last matches. We were playing better and I think we more or less deserved to win the match than them.”

“We analysed Juventus’ play, they are building a team and are in the process. They are very competitive and very difficult to beat. They’ve only lost one match.

“But we wanted to play too. We were dominating them. We were getting into their box better and we had chances to score. They had the chance in the second half with that Emiliano Martinez save. I think it was very tight match for both teams. But I’m happy with the overall result. Three wins, one draw and one defeat is very good. We still have the possibility to get into the top eight.”

Striker Watkins agreed with his manager, saying: “I think it was soft. Maybe in the Premier League, it’s a goal. But in Europe, the goalkeepers are protected a lot. It’s one of them.

“I thought we scored. But to be fair, this game had a 0-0 written all over it.

“Obviously, I have to be careful talking about the referee, but it’s different in this competition. We are used to it now. Sometimes it goes against you and sometimes it goes in your favour.

“It’s a positive result. The fans want to see a lot of goals and we do ourselves too, but the most important thing was that we didn’t lose tonight.

“Juventus are a massive team and they played well. We kept them out and now we move onto the weekend.”