“It was not a lack of respect towards the referee and he understood that,” said the yellow-red defender about the incident with the German match director last Thursday at Do Dragao.

On the eve of the return of the Europa League playoffs between Roma and Porto, during the interview with Sky Sport, Gianluca Mancini revisited the incident that occurred during the first half at Do Dragao with referee Stieler. In the 19th minute of the European playoff’s first leg, following one of the numerous whistles by the match referee, the yellow-red defender revealed the she-wolf emblem on his chest to the German referee, bellowing an impassioned “respect this club”. Today, Mancini stated on Sky regarding last week’s incident: “It was a brief interaction between me and the referee, I had seen our two fouls that led to two warnings while they had committed fouls but had no warnings. It came naturally to me to approach the referee and ask for respect for Roma, as they are surrounded by fantastic fans, and also for ourselves, because we are on the field fighting and striving. “I was compelled to make that gesture, it wasn’t out of disrespect towards the referee, and he understood it,”