Former Serie A referee Luca Marelli feels that the decision of referee Davide Massa to send off Juventus in yesterday evening’s Coppa Italia match against Juventus was a mistake.

Speaking to Italian broadcaster DAZN, via FCInterNews, Marelli argued that even apart from the racism scandal surrounding the incident, it was an error by Massa to give the Belgian a second yellow card towards the end of the 1-1 semifianl first leg draw.

The exact details of the circumstances of what led to Inter striker Lukaku receiving a second yellow card after celebrating his late equalizer against the Bianconeri are still becoming clear.

However, what appears to be the case is that the match referee Massa felt that the 29-year-old Belgian international had been inciting supporters with his celebration and thus booked the player.

Serie A Referee-Designator Gianluca Rocchi reportedly backs Massa and considers the decision to have been the correct one, although Nerazzurri coach Simone Inzaghi coach has defended his striker’s celebration, calling the situation a “misunderstanding.”

The coach’s reasoning is that the celebration that Lukaku performed was the same one that he does every time he scores, and so there was nothing about it that was meant to be inflammatory.

In his post-match remarks, Inzaghi had compared the situation to Atalanta and former Leicester City and RB Leipzig forward Ademola Lookman’s booking for a seemingly innocuous celebration of a goal against Udinese.

For his part, former referee Marelli agrees with the Nerazzurri coach on this aspect.

“Lookman and Lukaku are similar incidents,” he said.

“The decision of Doveri in Bergamo a few months ago, and then Massa this evening, probably both stemmed from the same rationale, which is a misunderstanding of a celebration that these players use all the time,” Marelli argued.

“In my opinion, Massa made a mistake in booking Lukaku,” the former referee said, “and it has nothing to do with whether or not there were racist chants.”

He explained that “I watched the match without sound on because I was hosting guests at the time, and so I don’t have the slightest idea of ​​what happened inside the stadium.”

“Of course, if there were racist chants, I condemn them, because racism is disgusting no matter the circumstances.”

“In any event, Massa made a mistake, because he misunderstood a mistake that Lukaku, like Lookman, uses very frequently,” Marelli said.

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“As a matter of fact, Lukaku used this celebration recently with the national team.”