Udinese Director Pierpaolo Marino: “Credit To Inter But For Our Fans There’s No Penalty On Edin Dzeko”

Udinese director Pierpaolo Marino feels that the penalty decision for Inter in the Nerazzurri’s 2-1 win on Sunday was a soft one.

Speaking to Italian broadcaster SportMediaset, Marino gave the view that the use of VAR in the incident was overly harsh on his team as the referee had seen the contact and deemed it not to be a penalty.

The use of VAR has been at the centre of a number of controversies in Serie A this season, with coaches, players, and fans sometimes feeling that the application has been inconsistent.

In some instances, the video assistant has decided to intervene to award penalties which have appeared to be fairly marginal while in others it has failed to award what have looked to have been fairly stonewall spot kicks missed by on-pitch referees.

Match official Daniele Chiffi was persuaded to have a second look at the contact by Pablo Mari on Edin Dzeko in Sunday’s match and pointed to the spot, but Marino felt that this was a harsh decision.

Asked whether he thought it was a penalty, Marino responded “Yes, but we have to discuss the fact that no one knows when or how VAR intervenes.”

“They say to us in meetings that it must only intervene on penalties that the referee didn’t see, not on more marginal ones,” he went on.

“This was a penalty that the Udinese fans don’t recognize,” he continued, “then in other venues it’s recognized. But I don’t want to appeal to that and use it as an excuse, let’s acknowledge Inter to have played a great match.”

“From a psychological point of view they faced great difficulty and an opponent with great form and confidence,” he added. “In the end they won and deserve credit, but Udinese played an excellent match.”