Former Serie A referee Luca Marelli analysed the performance of Italian referee Gianluca Rocchi in last night’s league clash between Inter and Atalanta in a post on his blog.
The first moment that Marelli highlighted was when Inter striker Lautaro Martinez grabbed Atalanta defender Rafael Tolói’s leg whilst the Brazilian was moving into position during a corner.
It’s clear that the correct decision would have been to give Atalanta a penalty kick and immediately send off the 22-year-old Argentine striker, with the reason being that he is not competing for the ball at all.
The serious failing, however, was that the VAR referee Massimiliano Irrati didn’t highlight the incident, removing some of the blame from Rocchi.
The other moment that Marelli touched on was the penalty given to Atalanta in the dying minutes of the game. Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni fouled Atalanta forward Ruslan Malinovskiy, although the Ukrainian’s reaction was exaggerated a little.
However, VAR cannot intervene because it was a subjective assessment by the referee. It’s a soft penalty, but a penalty nonetheless.
