Jose Mourinho has threatened legal action against fourth official Marco Serra after the Portuguese was sent off in Roma's 2-1 Serie A loss at Cremonese on Tuesday.

Mourinho's side fluffed the chance to move up to second on the league table, going home without any points after Daniel Ciofani's 83rd-minute winner from the penalty spot.

Not for the first time this season, the Roma boss was given his marching orders by referee Marco Piccinini shortly after half-time with his side 1-0 down following a row on the sidelines with Serra.

"I am emotional, but not crazy," Mourinho told DAZN. "In order to react the way I did, something had to happen first. I need to understand if I can take any legal action.

"Piccinini gave me a red card, because unfortunately the fourth official does not have the capacity to understand what he said to me.

"I want to find out if there is an audio recording. I don't want to get into the fact that Serra is from Turin and on Sunday we are playing against Juventus.

"For the first time in my career, a fourth official spoke to me in the most incredible way. It was unjustifiable.

"At the end of the game, I went to speak to them. Piccinini, who was the fourth official in the last game when I was sent off, told me to apologise to Serra.

"I told Serra he should have the courage to explain what happened, but he had memory problems."

Mourinho lamented his side's display with the race for the top four wide open ahead of the Giallorossi's clash with Juventus on Sunday.

"We were a little unlucky, conceding two goals on their one and a half chances," he said. "The responsibility is ours. We lacked intensity, should’ve killed off the game straight away.

"I am taking it one game at a time. I cannot leave this game behind now, I cannot even think about Sunday. There is frustration, which obliges me to analyse. It is a pity this thing happened with Serra: I respect someone as much as they respect me."

“We paid too high a price.”

José Mourinho after our defeat to Cremonese.

https://t.co/F6XVZlhyd6 #ASRoma #CremoneseRoma pic.twitter.com/b5ZAigAjnM
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) February 28, 2023