Polish referee Szymon Marciniak was correct to not award Shakhtar Donetsk with a penalty in yesterday’s Europa League semi final between them and Inter at the Merkur Spiel-Arena according to a report in today’s print edition of Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.
Shortly after the second half started, Alessandro Bastoni cleared the ball and due to being in close proximity, Roberto Gagliardini ducked in a bid to avoid being hit but ended up being hit and ball came off of his arm but there was nothing he could have done about it.
The Italian midfielder was crouched over and his movement was natural therefore there was no need to give the Ukraianian side a penalty.
Had the penalty been given the game could well have panned out entirely different to how it did in the end. Inter ran out comfortable 5-0 winners come the full time whistle but at the time of the above incident they were only leading 1-0.
