Inter appealed for a foul for the challenge by Sassuolo’s Domenico Berardi on Hakan Calhanoglu in the buildup to the Neroverdi’s opener, and Italian media have suggested that they should have gotten it.
Today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport highlight the incident as the one moment in which referee Francesco Fourneau looked to have made the wrong decision in an otherwise very good display.
Berardi won the ball back from Calhanoglu in midfield as the Neroverdi had been looking to press Inter from the very beginning, and the quick change of possession led to Giacomo Raspadori’s early opening goal.
However, the challenge by the Sassuolo winger had to go through Calhanoglu, and caught the Inter midfielder’s foot before getting to the ball, so in the view of the Gazzetta it ought to have been whistled as a foul.
The newspaper goes on to argue that the foul was by no means clear, and not within the scope of VAR, while they otherwise rate Fourneau’s direction of the match as having been positive.
