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Jose Mourinho says he wore a wire on the touchline during Wednesday's game against Monza to "protect himself" from the match officials. The Portuguese coach was already suspended for two games last February after an argument with fourth official Marco Serra and has already received three red cards this season. Mourinho accused Serra, who was not involved in the Monza match, of inflammatory comments, saying he doesn't have "the ability to say what he said to me. I want to understand if there is an audio recording of what happened.

The history repeated itself on Wednesday as Mourinho himself explained to DAZN after the 1-1 draw at Monza, criticizing referee Daniele Chiffi.

"I'm not stupid, you know. Today, I went to the game with a microphone. I recorded everything," Mourinho said. "From the moment I left the locker room, to the moment I returned. I had to protect myself."

Mourinho went after the referee afterward, calling him out after he decided to show a red card to AS Roma's left-back Zeki Celik.

"Chiffi is the worst referee I have met in my life. He is the worst. Technically, he's horrible. Zero empathy," Mourinho said. "Zero communication. Zero awareness. A second yellow to a guy who slips in the 96th minute ... I stopped working (talking to him) 20-30 minutes from the end because I knew he would give me a red card for anything. I didn't give him the opportunity, I decided no, that's enough."

Monza's coach Raffaele Palladino didn't agree with Mourinho's quotes and spoke about the referee during the post-game press conference.

"In my opinion, he was among the best referees, he did nothing wrong. If anything, I was angry with the fourth official. I have never seen an opposing bench protest like today's, it was scandalous," he said. "I lent more energy to them than to what was happening on the pitch."

The Italian FA have opened a new case on Mourinho for what he said after the game and La Gazzetta dello Sport has reported that he might be suspended for at least one game.