Referee Davide Di Marco has won praise for getting two key penalty decisions right in Inter Milan’s Serie A win over Lecce.
Today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, argue that the official was spot-on both when he did and did not award Inter a spot kick.
Inter had a couple of penalty appeals in yesterday evening’s Serie A match against Lecce.
Both came as the Nerazzurri were looking for a second goal to give themselves a more comfortable margin.
Inter had the majority of possession and regularly circulated the ball in and around Lecce’s penalty area.
Therefore it was little surprise that the Giallorossi defense was under a fair bit of pressure.
And there were a couple moments in which Inter players appealed for a penalty.
Di Marco Praised For Two Penalty Decisions In Inter Win Vs Lecce
The first big appeal from an Inter striker came from Mehdi Taremi.
The Iranian had the ball in the box, and was looking to manoeuvre it into a shooting position.
However, Lecce defender Kialonda Gaspar put Taremi off with a challenge. The Inter striker felt that Gaspar had fouled him in the process.
But referee Di Marco saw it as a fair challenge and waved the appeals away.
There was a VAR check on the incident. But after review, the video assistant concurred with Di Marco that there was no foul by the Lecce defender.
On the other hand, Di Marco had no doubts that there was a foul by Gaspar later in the second half.
The 26-year-old grappled with Inter striker Marcus Thuram, dragging the Frenchman to the ground as he tried to meet a cross from the right flank.
Di Marco immediately pointed to the spot.
And in the view of the Gazzetta, this was once again clearly the right decision.
