Referee Fabio Maresca made the right decision in waving away penalty appeals by Spezia for a “handball” by Inter midfielder Marcelo Brozovic in yesterday evening’s Serie A clash.
This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who argue that the incident was both not a handball, and well outside the penalty area.
Spezia players made appeals to Maresca after they felt that Brozovic had handled a ball in by Spezia defender Dimitrios Nikolaou, and they will have been hoping that the VAR might have a second look.
In the end nothing came of it, and the Gazzetta note that the ball appeared to come off the Nerazzurri player’s chest rather than his arm, and that he was at any rate outside the area, so Maresca’s decision was correct.
Meanwhile, the newspaper also commend Maresca and the VAR officials for getting the offside decision right and awarding Inter’s opening goal, in which Danilo D’Ambrosio had been close but ultimately played offside in the buildup.