Former Serie A referee Graziano Cesari feels that referee Daniele Chiffi did not do a great job of officiating Inter’s Serie A derby clash with AC Milan over the weekend.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster SportMediaset, Cesari gave the referee a grade of 5.5/10 for his handling of the derby, noting that there were several moments in which Chiffi failed to keep a lid on the tension as it started to boil over.
Matches between Inter and Milan tend to be fiery affairs, and Saturday’s clash at the San Siro was no different, with some squabbles and heavy challenges between both sets of players.
No players were sent off, but as Cesari points out, the sense was that Chiffi was never fully in control as the frustration grew from the players who clashes with each other on a few occasions.
Cesari said that “Chiffi had a very difficult game, Di Paolo on the VAR helped him at times, other times not. The match was a nervous one.”
“After just three minutes there was already a moment that made you sit up and take notice, a heavy challenge by Barella on Tonali, which fortunately didn’t take his leg out from under him.”
“At nine minutes in there was a clash between Dumfries and Theo, and I didn’t like how he handled that, it was a mess,” he continued.
“In the 69th minute there’s probably the most important moment, at 3-2, Dumfries tries to get past Theo and Chiffi has a good view of it but doesn’t give anything,” Cesari went on.
“It’s a foul because Theo extends his arm and stops him from progressing,” he noted, “but it’s not necessarily yellow – or does he interrupt a significant attacking move? That’s the question.”
“He doesn’t whistle, and VAR can’t intervene,” he added.
“In the 77th minute there’s something I didn’t think was good at all,” Cesari then noted. “Tonali shows that there are two balls on the pitch, he could kick one out of play but instead kicked it into the action. It’s unsportsmanlike behaviour. I give Chiffi 5.5/10, he didn’t convince me.”
