Roma coach Rudi Garcia has claimed that Stefano Pioli "does not know how to lose" after the Lazio boss took exception to his remarks in the build-up to Monday's Eternal City derby.
Prior to Roma's 2-1 win over Lazio -- a result which clinched second place in Serie A and a berth in the Champions League next season -- Garcia insinuated that Pioli's side have been influencing referees to get them into the position they are in this season.
"I seem to recall Lazio winning their last game with a goal which shouldn't have been given after they had cried about their game against Inter," Garcia said at a news conference on Sunday. "It seems like Roma will need to have 12 players to have any chance of winning, which seems absurd."
Roma went on to win thanks to a late goal from Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, with Pioli finding the defeat difficult to take, as well as the opposition's celebrations given what had been said before.
"Foreign coaches come here to Italy and you hope that they will bring with them new ideas from a new culture and that we can learn from them, but in the end they become worse than us Italians," Pioli told Sky Sport Italia in a postmatch interview. "Garcia could have done without branding us cry-babies and talking about a game he was not even involved in. It was neither correct nor professional."
Those remarks were relayed to Garcia live during his own interview with Sky Sport Italia, but the Frenchman was diplomatic in his response.
"My comments on the eve of the game were just part of the show," he said. "It was a strategy, to destabilise them. But I want to pay my compliments to Pioli, who is an excellent coach. I don't know if Lazio will finish the season third or fourth, but they have some great players and have had a great season."
The pair crossed paths at the postmatch news conference with Pioli this time getting the opportunity to express his feelings to Garcia in person.
"You're a liar, talking about us being cry-babies," Pioli said, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Shut up, you don't know how to lose," Garcia replied, before taking his seat to praise his side for reaching their objective for the season.
"We've won the derby at Lazio, we've finished second and now we are going to celebrate. Then we will analyse the season at the appropriate time. All I can say is that our objective was to qualify for the Champions League and we have done that."