Rafael Benitez has broken his silence to get two issues off his chest on the eve of an important Europa League semifinal clash with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on Thursday.
The Spaniard has obeyed the Serie A club's media silence in the aftermath of a 2-2 draw at Parma on Sunday which resulted in him being hit with a one-game touchline ban for being overheard branding Italian football "s---."
He was obliged to speak at Wednesday's prematch news conference in Ukraine, however, and much of his discourse rotated around two incidents in the past week which have drawn his ire.
First and foremost, he wondered why he had been singled out by Lega Serie A officials on Sunday.
"I'm surprised at how they heard my phrase about stonewalling in Italian football when there were chants about [Mount] Vesuvius and against Neapolitans throughout the match," Benitez said. "It's odd that these people heard nothing throughout the whole game. But having said this, I don't want to talk about it anymore."
Benitez's other gripe was with the Dnipro goal in the first leg in Naples, which was scored from an offside position.
Club president Aurelio De Laurentiis claimed that UEFA did not want his side to win the trophy, and Benitez wondered on Wednesday whether that theory may be right.
"It was anything but just an accident," Benitez said. "We all know what really happened. We all saw very well what happened and that is going to help us.
"A mistake like that can happen only once in a semifinal and I expect things to be different tomorrow night and everybody will be focusing on ensuring it is a normal game without any controversial remnants.
"The chances of there being another refereeing mistake are minimal," he continued. "After the mistake in the first leg, everybody will be concentrating hard."