Premiership: Ravanelli refuses to apologise to Desailly

Derby striker Fabrizio Ravanelli has refused to apologise to Marcel Desailly in the war of words after the pair clashed during and after the 1-1 draw at Pride Park.

Chelsea defender Desailly had claimed the Italian insulted him during the Premiership game "150,000 times, always with the same words".

But Ravanelli, who scored Derby's controversial opener despite appearing to be in an offside position, has refused to shoulder any blame for the incident.

"I have to apologise to Desailly? I don't think so," said Ravanelli.

"I think if you see the television images it is clear what happened."

Desailly claimed Ravanelli had insulted him because of his inability to win a place in the Italy national team.

"I had a small altercation with Ravanelli, during and after the match - and his attitude during the encounter was frankly inexplicable," he told his personal website.

"Is this due to the fact that he has not been selected more for the Italian team? Or maybe he has not digested the defeat of Italy by France in final of Euro 2000?

"I do not really understand the reasons why he got so excited. He was very aggressive and it finished with him getting on my nerves - which is very rare, because I am usually a very calm person. All that is really inexplicable for me."

Ravanelli refused to rise to the bait. He said: "These things happen on the pitch and in football. I do not want to discuss this any further."