Almost Having A Fist Fight With Antonio Conte When Chelsea Was Halted By Tottenham Hotspur, Thomas Tuchel: I Am The Happiest Manager
JAKARTA – Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel feels he is the happiest tactician after almost a fist fight with Antonio Conte at the end of the Chelsea match against Tottenham Hotspur.
Chelsea host Spurs in the second week of the English Premier League at Stamford Bridge, London, on Sunday, August 14 at night GMT+7 (Western Indonesian Time or WIB). The hosts appeared to dominate the match which ended with the score 2-2.
"I'm the happiest manager. We dominated [the match] for 90 minutes. It was the best performance. I'm sorry for my players," the German said, as reported by The Sun.
The match in which the Blues managed to take the lead twice was very hot. The tension in the match was further exacerbated by controversial decisions from referee Anthony Taylor who led the match.
The 43-year-old referee made a number of decisions that were considered detrimental to the home team. Especially in the moments before Spurs scored the equalizer.
Taylor gave no foul as Rodrigo Bentancur tackled and brought down Kai Havertz before Tottenham leveled the score at 1-1 through Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the 68th minute.
Almost the same decision for the visitors' second goal scored by Harry Kane in the 90+6' minute. The goal came before Romero grabbed Marc Cucurella's hair, but Taylor let it go.
"Since when can you pull [a player's] hair on a football pitch? They checked it, and they didn't do anything," said the former Paris Saint-Germain boss.
The match between Spurs and Chelsea began to heat up when Højbjerg scored a reply. Conte celebrated the goal all the way to the front of the Chelsea bench which infuriated Tuchel.
Tuchel then responded to Conte's actions while celebrating the Blues' second goal by celebrating past the Spurs bench. Conte just looked down on that occasion.
Their drama then peaked at the end of the match after Kane's goal before the whistle signaled the game's end. Tuchel was annoyed that Conte didn't want to look at him when he shook hands.
Conte's attitude made Tuchel even more annoyed and did not want to let go of the Italian coach's hand. As a result, the two of them had a war of words and almost got into a fistfight before their respective staff broke up.
Both actions were rewarded with a red card by the field court.