Ranieri's thoughts after Atalanta

This is what he had to say...

Can Roma still get into the Champions League?

“I don't know. After tonight I don't know but we'll keep playing as we always have and fight till the very end.”

Roma really struggled to contain Atalanta on the left with Ademola Lookman and in the second half you were unable to match their strength and physicality.

“Strength and intensity – we know that Atalanta are masters in that department. That's how they won the Europa League, so full credit to them. What I'd like to ask you and the experts you have is this: We can debate about whether it was a penalty or not. Perhaps it was 60% a penalty and 40% not? Or the other way round? 60% no and 40% yes? We've always been told that the VAR only intervenes in the case of a clear and obvious error. We've always been told that fouls low down... [he sees a replay of the penalty awarded to Roma before the decision was overturned] Here you can clearly see that [Mario] Pasalic mistimes his tackle, puts his foot down and touches my player's knee.“They need to explain to us what rules we need to follow because we can't have it one way this time and another way next time. The VAR shouldn't have intervened there. The ref gave a penalty and it was a penalty. Those are the rules. If they're going to change them from one game to the next, we'll have to accept it but it's a little disappointing that there's no consistency in the decisions. And I'm sure that [Serie A and B referee designator Gianluca Rocchi] will say so to whoever is concerned. Why did they intervene? You can clearly see Pasalic touch Manu Kone's knee. That's a penalty. The referee gave it, didn't it? If he hadn't, VAR wouldn't have been able to intervene either. Once he's given it, you can't intervene. That's what we were told.“We put some good moves together. Atalanta took advantage of theirs and we didn't. Credit to Atalanta but credit to my players too.”

It's right to give credit where it's due. To provide the full picture regarding what you were saying, we'll hear from [DAZN refereeing pundit] Luca Marelli in a moment. He gave his version of the incident during the match.

“And what was it? I want to know what Marelli said. Tell me. Because I'm not asking if it should or shouldn't have been a penalty. I'm asking if the VAR can intervene. As for whether it was a penalty, I'm on Roma's side and I say it was. [Gian Piero] Gasperini is on the other side and he says it wasn't. That's not the point. We can accept everything but we want to know, in the laws of the game, why the VAR intervened. Otherwise just say, 'You know what? We've changed the rules. Now we'll always intervene.' Then we'll accept it. We don't understand but we'll adapt to it.”

[Luca Marelli speaking] We've seen the images several times and I can tell you that even before [referee Simone] Sozza was called over for the on-field review, I said there would be one. Because in this case it looks like there's contact but actually there isn't.

“There's no contact? OK, now I understand everything...

”[Marelli again] Look at this image.

“No, there really isn't... Look, you can see the knee touching. How can you say it doesn't? Please tell me how you can say it doesn't touch. He [Pasalic] mistimes his tackle. His foot goes down, he doesn't get any of the ball and he touches my player. How can you say he doesn't? Really, how can you? We're seeing it right now. Thank you and good evening to you.”