An early penalty kick opened the Serie A duel between CFC Genoa and Napoli, and a late penalty kick ended it—to the detriment of the Genoese. For their coach Daniele de Rossi, this was difficult to take.
First things first: it was understandable that highly experienced Serie A referee Davide Massa pointed to the spot deep into stoppage time and after VAR intervention in favor of the reigning champions from Naples. After all, substitute Maxwel Cornet had stepped on the foot of SSC attacker Antonio Vergara.
The 3-2 winning goal by Rasmus Höjlund after a wild game with an early penalty for Genoa—a foul after just twelve seconds, followed by Ruslan Malinovskyi’s 1-0 goal in the third minute—was therefore justified.
De Rossi no longer knows “what sport I’m coaching”
Genoa coach Daniele de Rossi nevertheless took no prisoners in his vocal criticism. It was in no way inferior to the recent rebukes of his counterpart Antonio Conte. Conte had recently taken issue with the fixture schedulers and the general sensibility of modern soccer. De Rossi, meanwhile, was certainly also charged up by the fact that his protégés had actually pushed for the victory themselves and deserved it.
For him, the former Roma pro and 2006 World Cup winner, visibly moved, told DAZN after the bitter end to the game that all the long VAR interventions had reached the limit of what he could tolerate. “I don’t even know what to say about it,” said the 42-year-old. “I already talked about penalties last week. None of us really knows anymore what a clear and obvious penalty is.” As a participant, you no longer know what a foul is in general.
De Rossi, who has only been in office since November 2025, even went so far as to say: “The soccer I used to play no longer exists. I now have to tell my players to always keep their arms behind their backs and, ideally, not to get involved in tackles at all. I really don’t know what sport I’m coaching anymore.”