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Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri hits out at refereeing, wants club to take stand

Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri has called on his club to stand by him in lamenting the quality of the refereeing in his side's games.

Sarri was disgruntled by Napoli's 0-0 draw at Genoa on Wednesday night, which saw the Azzurri relinquish top spot in Serie A to Juventus.

The 57-year-old felt there were two clear penalties not given to his side, and said it is not the first time they have been on the receiving end of unjust decisions.

"It happened in Pescara too," he said. "I'm sorry to say it because it seems like I am a coach who moans, but my club need to intervene because there were three incidents which were pretty blatant.

"Everybody makes mistakes in football but the difference is that when coaches get things wrong, they lose their jobs. There were two penalties for us and there should also have been a red card for a foul as the last man when we were instead told to play on.

"It was a clear goal-scoring opportunity, then there was the incident with [Arkadiusz] Milik. I'm going to ask the president to intervene, and I'll leave it to him to decide how."

Napoli captain Marek Hamsik echoed his coach's views, although he said the team need to focus on their football rather than feel sorry for themselves.

"It seemed like at least one of them should have been given and watching it again on TV, it looks like the first one was quite blatant," he is quoted as saying in Gazzetta dello Sport. "We've just got to think about playing football and not talking, though.

"We're strong and you can see that in our results and our game. If we carry on along this path, we will go far. It's going to be a tighter season than the last one and while losing [Gonzalo] Higuain was a blow, we're united and we've got a great group."