Referee Daniele Doveri did not have too much work to do in what proved to be a relatively tame match by the standards of derby d’Italia clashes between Inter and Juventus in yesterday evening’s Coppa Italia semifinal second leg.
This is the view in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, who argue that those decisions which the official did have to make he got right as the Nerazzurri moved on to the final with a 1-0 victory.
Any match pitting Inter and Juventus against one another is bound to have a high potential of boiling over on the pitch, regardless of the competition that it’s played in.
This principle was borne out in the meeting between the two teams in the semifinal first leg earlier this month, which had been a fairly controversy-free encounter right up until the final minutes when a chaotic brawl erupted after Romelu Lukaku was sent off amid racist chants.
Accordingly, Doveri will hardly have been ready to let his guard down until everything was truly done and dusted between yesterday evening’s match.
However, in truth the officially hardly need have bothered.
Yesterday evening’s match was as tame and peaceful as the first leg had been until its closing stages, and unlike that match did not take a turn towards the fractious.
Early on there were two heavy challenges by Juventus players on Inter ones – Alex Sandro clipping the heels of Nicolo Barella and then Adriena Rabiot doing the same to Matteo Darmian.
In both instances, Doveri rushed over to reprimand the Bianconeri players responsible, but only with a verbal warning and no card in hand.
This seemed to have the desired effect as there were no particularly dirty tackles in the match from there on out.
Then there was Federico Dimarco’s 15th minute goal, which was correctly awarded as the Nerazzurri wingback was played onside by Filip Kostic when he received the ball.
Conversely, Edin Dzeko thought that he had scored after doing very well to dribble past Bremer and stick the ball in the back of the net in the 53rd minute, but the effort was ruled out by an offside by the Bosnian.
In truth, it was hardly the most difficult decision for Doveri and his linesman to get right, considering that the former Manchester City and Roma striker was a good distance past the last defender when Federico Dimarco found him with a long ball.
Lastly, the Gazzetta argued, Doveri was quite right to wave away Juventus appeals for a penalty after a supposed handball by Alessandro Bastoni, and also correct to book Manuel Locatelli.
