Former Serie A referee Paolo Casarin feels that there was not a clear penalty to Juventus in the second half of yesterday’s 1-0 win by Inter at the Allianz Stadium.
Writing in his analysis of the match’s refereeing in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Corrriere della Sera, Casarin weighed in on that incident and the other key moments in the match.
Juventus midfielder Denis Zakaria had the ball right on the edge of the penalty area when Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni went in to try and win the ball and the Swiss midfielder went down under the clumsy attempt.
Referee Massimiliano Irrati immediately awarded a free kick, though the Bianconeri players were adamant that more should have been given as the contact looked to be potentially inside the penalty area.
After a lengthy VAR review, Irrati’s decision was upheld, although the Juventus players felt that they should have gotten more.
In the view of Casarin, however, the incident simply wasn’t a clear-cut foul in the first place, so there were no grounds for a penalty to be given.
“I didn’t see enough contact in the incident between Bastoni and Zakaria to give a penalty,” he writes.
Of the possible second yellows for both sides, he writes that “Lautaro and Rabiot got away with just yellow cards amid widespread misconduct.”
And of the Nerazzurri’s penalty in the first half, he analyzes that “In the 45th minute Morata commits a foul on Dumfries in the area – first Mazzoleni on VAR and then Irrati in front of the monitor decide to award the penalty.”
“Szczesny saves and Calhanoglu scrambles the ball into the goal along with some Bianconeri players,” he goes on. “Then there’s prolonged uncertainty about what to do.”
“Irrati finally decides to have the penalty retaken due to de Ligt’s early encroachment into the area,” he adds.
Casarin also adds that there were “Many attempts by players to get penalties in their favour, making the referees nervous.”
