Zola on ... Sunderland

A point gained - or two lost? Gianfranco Zola shares his thoughts on the 2-2 draw at Sunderland...

Their determination and desire was better than ours. They overcame the man short that they had and the story was in that. We lost control of the game from a game that was ours and we let them in, left an open door for them - and you can’t do that in this league. We paid for it. We had chances after but it was too late.

It’s not a matter of tactics as we were in control of the game and we had a spare man, but we couldn’t find a spare man. They were superior to us and that why we are here crying because we should have had two more points.

Kovac didn’t even see the guy. The guy took the ball and Kovac kicked the player. There was no intention and he didn’t even see him. Their player could have had a yellow card but it was silly what he has done, and he shouldn’t have done it.

I was too upset to ask the referee anything and I didn’t have the opportunity to speak to him but you can see the game at any time and Kovac didn’t see Bent. He was kicking the ball and Bent was coming from behind so he didn’t see him. You can have a look on the video and confirm my words.

It is the second time we have had a man sent off where he didn’t deserve it. It’s OK but I want to make it clear that it is not a complaint.

I’m not anxious about the situation. I am upset as it is not the first time that we had the game under control and then leave the points behind. That upsets me because we did not deserve it for the way we played. It is something that we will have to come to terms with before the situation gets worse.

For me, if the team plays like that then we should come out with a victory. Their comeback was an easy situation like it was last week for us. It was remarkable, the fighting spirit that they had and the desire to come back, but we have to be a little more cynical in situations like that as in my opinion the game was finished.

It’s not a matter of being ten or eleven. You have to be a little more under control and we lost it a little bit. That is why we are here with one point and not three points. We lost control of the game and I cannot tolerate that.

I don’t like to criticise referees as they are human beings and sometimes they can be put under pressure. The atmosphere was quite intense so that is understandable. I have no blame for the referee, I’m just upset about our second half.

We are not down, just upset. There have been other moments when we've been feeling down but this is not the case. We are upset about what happened but it won’t happen again.