Traianos Dellas has spiced up the controversy surrounding Juve’s victory by claiming the referee’s 'mission' was to favour the visitors.

“The referee had to help out Juventus. That was his mission,” slammed the Roma defender. “Milan had already won earlier in the day, so the Turin team also needed a victory to stay top.”

It was clear that the Saturday evening clash at the Stadio Olimpico would cause controversy, but with both of Juve’s goals stirring up debate the 2-1 result is set to hit the headlines for some time.

Dellas was at the centre of the most contested incident, as he tripped Marcelo Zalayeta for the winning penalty. Replays clearly showed the foul took place outside the area, but Alessandro Del Piero converted to give Juve the three points.

“It was all too clear that Referee Salvatore Racalbuto was favouring Juventus,” added the Euro 2004 winner. “The penalty was definitely outside the area, and Zalayeta also admitted as much to me afterwards.”

The Greek defender saved his most damaging blast to the ‘powers that be’ which run the Italian game, suggesting that there was a conspiracy against Roma.

“Seeing as Milan had won at the 94th minute against Atalanta, it was obvious that Juventus also had to get the three points and it was the referee’s mission to ensure that happened."

"If the Scudetto has already been assigned in advance, I’d appreciate it if they told us so we wouldn’t waste our energy trying to win games.”

The rest of the team was not quite so vicious in its reaction, although on the field Vincenzo Montella and Antonio Cassano were repeatedly restrained from arguing with the officials.

“Both of Juve’s goals should have been disallowed,” noted Olivier Dacourt. “They are such a strong team that they really don’t need these favours.”

Coach Gigi Del Neri insisted he would not talk about the refereeing errors, but did make an intriguing comment. “The images are clear for all to see. In my view, we won 1-0.”
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