The president of Lecce did not like some of the referee’s decisions in the defeat at San Siro against AC Milan, and it would be fair to say he made this obvious in the stands.
As this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) reports, in the first meeting between Lecce and Milan at the Stadio Via del Mare last year there was not time to leave the stands early.
The goal to make it 3-2 to the home side, scored by Piccoli, was disallowed in the 97th minute after a review at the monitor for a stomp from Piccoli on Thiaw and shortly afterwards Abisso’s final whistle arrived.
Yesterday, however, the episode that upset Lecce’s nerves materialized in the 57th minute: Almqvist ended up down in the Milan area after contact with Theo Hernandez, having received a blow on the head from the Frenchman, but referee Massimi does not stop the game.
On the counter-attack that followed Leao scored the goal to make it 3-0 and effectively kill the game. In the stands there are Saverio Sticchi Damiani, president of Lecce, and Sandro Mencucci, CEO, already annoyed after Krstovic’s expulsion in the first half.
While Leao surfed under the fans, the two Giallorossi managers stand up and applauded ironically. Then they left.
“Almqvist took a knee to the head and it is impossible that the match director didn’t realize what happened,” commented Sticchi Damiani.
Luca Gotti, the Lecce coach, commented on the matter: “The thing that bothers me the most is that I see Almqvist take a knee and I see him from a more distant position than others…” The reference is to the referee, a few steps away from the tackle.
“I keep my spirit, because we tried to annoy Milan. Outnumbered we were ordered and we didn’t give up on going to pinch them. It’s the most important thing in view of the next 7 games to go, 4 of which will be direct clashes.”
It was a penalty….
But it’s why I hate VAR.
I couldn’t celebrate the goal (with my kids) because I thought it’d be chalked off. And when it wasn’t the moment had passed.
Given the number of the decisions they get wrong or too right (as in decisions that a borderline and could only be given in slow motion) it’s really not been worth it.
Agree, Théo was not playing the ball. Hope your kids are Milan fans as well haha
I hope so.
But as Agnelli pointed out football is losing the kids because clubs no longer have any identity and kids just follow players.
Shoulder to shoulder isn’t a penalty? Who are you, Raheem Sterling? Lmao
I personally thought the red card was kinda harsh. But an ex referee said it was the right decision. So i’m not gonna argue about that.
But for Theo, it was shoulder to shoulder so it wasn’t a pinalty. And yes, his knee accidentally hit Lecce player head when he tried to get the ball. But again, everyone was kinda stop playing after that happened and the referee says played on which means it wasn’t a fault. So…
I was def a pen in case for Theo.
It was not
Why do people just think a shoulder to shoulder is a penalty now? If you aren’t strong enough to not get muscled off the ball, that’s your own fault. People praise Haaland for doing it for some reason, but change their minds the second anyone else does it lol. It’s not a foul, stop crying
It’s shoulder to shoulder, strikers get praised when they do it but somehow people think it’s a penalty when defenders do it. SMH.