There was a big moment of controversy towards the end of AC Milan’s win over Fiorentina, and it was what ended up being the game-deciding call.
Having equalised through Rafael Leao following Robin Gosens’ opener, Milan were given a spot kick in the final 10 minutes of a game that they eventually won 2-1 to go top of the table, and it has ignited a lot of controversy.
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As Santiago Gimenez went for a second bite at a cross he went down having been pulled back by Fabiano Parisi, at least in the eyes of the VAR chief who recommended the referee look at his original non-penalty call.
Fiorentina have already spoken out publicly against the decision to award a spot kick, with sporting director Daniele Prade calling it ‘scandalous’ while under-fire head coach Stefano Pioli stated that it encourages players to dive. But how have the Italian media reacted?
Media reaction
We start with La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) who assess the incident as follows: “Everything in the 80th minute (37 seconds): Marinelli appears to be covered, Parisi sees Gimenez’s precise position, and it’s clear that – to prevent the Milan player from gaining possession – the Viola extends his right arm, touches the attacker’s face with his hand, and applies a restraining gesture, but it’s subtle.
“Marinelli, who has previously made decisions on the pitch, is called to VAR. The announcement comes at 84’20”: penalty and yellow.”
👀 In your opinion, was a penalty the right call?
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) October 19, 2025
Refereeing expert Luca Marelli agrees with Fiorentina’s anger over the penalty, because he states that it was ‘outside the protocol’ of VAR, because it was not a ‘clear and obvious error’.
“There isn’t even really a shirt tug, it is simply Parisi’s hand on Gimenez’s neck. In my view, if the penalty is awarded on the field, then you can feel hard done by, but ultimately have to accept it,” he said on DAZN (via Football Italia).
“However, if the referee sees it and does not give a penalty, then there simply is not sufficient reason for an On-Field Review. In my view, this VAR call was outside the protocol.”
Gianpaolo Calvarese – a former referee – commented on the incident with an explanatory video on his social media profiles. The expert believes that real-time assessment is different from VAR.
“Watching the live broadcast, I thought it was a clear penalty based on the dynamics. The Fiorentina defender, seeing himself outplayed, tried to hold him back. If Marinelli had whistled for it on the pitch, all things considered, I think it would have been a reasonable decision given the dynamics.
However, he also added: “I think the VAR’s call to the monitor was excessive. It certainly wasn’t a foul to the face, and if we analyse the holding, it seems too slight to warrant an on-field review.”
Corriere dello Sport gave the referee Marinelli a 4.5 rating, adding: “The penalty incident was a defining moment in Marinelli’s match. A hand grazed (no punch, no violence) across his face, a scene with plenty of special effects for the Rossoneri player (who, despite the terrible blow, tried to kick Ranieri, who was telling him not to simulate).
“Overall, the Tivoli-born referee wasn’t exactly spot-on, making a lot of mistakes: after the clash between Gabbia and Ricci (who remained on the ground complaining of a blow to the head), Marinelli gave the ball back to Milan, but Nicolussi Caviglia had reached the ball (a second after it was blocked).
“Or again, he didn’t give Leão an advantage, awarding a free kick for the Rossoneri, only to apologize later. And the missed yellow (if he had dug a little deeper it would have been a red) on Modric?”
TuttoSport and Corriere della Sera gave Marinelli’s performance the same rating, deserving a 5. The opinion is therefore the same as the other papers: the referee was not good enough, and the penalty was at the very least generous.
This guy that say that it was outside the protocol, wtf? The whole Fing point of VAR is to get situations like this clearer. Why is this guy an “expert”? He was a bad referee before? Great. It was 100% a penalty and VAR should react in situations like this ever single time. But Gimenez rolling around like someone hit him with an FVP drone is embarrassing.
If that call was against Milan would you feel hard done by it? I didn’t think there was a lot in it honestly. Santi sold it though. Like Allegri said, sometimes they go in your favor, sometimes against.
I’m with you on that, Santi bought that penalty in a rather embarrassing way. Ultimately I won’t remember that come the end of the season and the three points are important but watching in the moment it didn’t feel good to root for that.
If Fofana hadn’t been called for the exact same thing 5 minutes before this at midfield, how could he not award a penalty for the exact same “inadvertent” hand to the face in the box?
Also, look at Parisi right before he throws his arm out there to stop Giminez. He looks right at him and knows exactly what he is doing and should rightfully be punished for it.
All that being said, the officiating was inconsistent and better quality needs to be provided.
Exactly, Fofana no-looked smacked someone in the face and got a yellow card for it. Why? because it was a foul.
There is no universe where putting your hands on someone’s face and then pulling at their collar does not warrant a foul, and this one was in side the box as well.
Clear as day pen.
If Gabbia or Pavlovic or Tomori had done this, I would have wanted to see it punished as well. Letter of the law is that if you foul opponents in the box, then it’s a pen. It was a (actually 2) foul, and so it’s a pen.
Bro was miles behind Santi with no chance at the ball and stuck his arm out to pull him back. It simply doesn’t get clearer than that for me.
We need to look at the penalty in isolation of the referee’s overall performance. As soon as you touch an opponent in the face, you immediately give up all your rights to reason and defend. Touching the face literally means telling the opponent to “please exaggerate”, and telling the ref to “please punish me in whatever way you want.” Lesson learned for Parisi, do not deliberately touch anybody in the face.
Clear penalty. If this is outside VAR protocol then VAR needs to change its protocol. Parisi deliberately tried to hold back Gimenez from reaching the ball. Whether it’s a slight tug on the shoulders or not it still can make a difference in getting to the ball.
Sometimes if players don’t act like Gimenez did by making a meal out of it then nothing happens and no penalty would have been award. The rules need to be very clear and not subjective.
Parisi committed 2 fouls whether it was a hand to the face or a slight tug it’s still a foul.
And this is really the point isn’t it?
There is a free ball in the box, Santi moves fastest and quite likely will get a shot on goal. The defender grabs his shoulder / shirt and tugs him in a clear effort to keep him from getting to the ball.
What else do we need to see? No shirt tug it’s a shot on goal by Santi at the very least.
Totally agree.
Penalty was justified for the way Gimenez was impeded from going for the loose ball right in front of him. Not for the fact that contact was slightly to the face. Which Gimenez then badly exaggerated.
But the initial pull back was enough because of the way it prevented him reaching a ball that he had a good chance of getting to.
Well said, mate. Clear penalty. Parisi tried to stop Gimenez from reaching the ball – slight contact or not. If this is not a penalty, in any game at all, then, what is? The ref saw the replay, and, he also adjudged that it was it. Referees don’t favour Milan with cheap penalties. This one only saw the replay of the foul, and, did the right thing.
The unfortunate aspect of the new game is that unless he rolls around like he was hit by a drone its far less likely to be called. Gimenez did the right thing to get the call.
Personally I hate VAR, I think it ruins the sport and would rather have 2 points less and the far messier but more lovable game from 6 years ago back.
Gimenez was clearly pulled back by the Fiorentina player with a glaring chance at goal coming. The face had little/nothing to do with it. Undoubtedly a penalty. Anything else did not matter.
Fiorentina were complaining about the 1st goal that was scored. I think it was a penalty clearly I’m not not an expert but you can’t have your hand in the attacker face like that.
It is also a wake up call for us from now on that probably that is the last penalty we’ll get this year atleast. We should start to play and win our games without controversy because I don’t wouldn’t want milan to have a reputation that we were helped by var or ref when we go for the 2nd star
If strikers feel the slightest tug then they’re entitled to give it a try. Regardless of how strong the tug was has anyone ever tried moving forward and pulling your shoulder back to the point where your upper body weight is redistributed in a split second. That’s bloody hard to do so I think there was a tug it’s because the fact is this happened to Santi. How much of a tug only those two players know but it happened so quick. The issue is if he would have just sat there on the ground arms raised the ref would have just waved it on so in today’s game you have to do enough to bring the game to a stop I.e grab your face. Obviously once plays stopped he can’t just go great, got your attention let’s check var because the refs not gonna buy into it so he has to see it through. This is something Milan don’t do enough when other teams do. Our players have been too honest in the past and it’s hurt us. Santi used the good old South American La nuestra and good on him. Taking one for the team like simeone, Maradona and Suarez to name a few.
I will happily take this penalty every day being a fan but also agree with the logic of the article..may be they should improve the rule, something on the lines of ‘umpire’s call’ as we have in cricket!
I don’t understand why some people think it’s not a penalty. There have been many way worse and more dubious case. I agree that Santi exagerated, but this one was a clear penalty.
Could somebody please explain the argument against giving the penalty?
Arguing that an objective foul should not have been called, because of some procedural detail, when the procedural detail is based on subjective, arbitrary asssessment whether something is obvious or not.
Itally really is a state of mind. Instead of debating whether something is or is not a foul, and how to make sure that the right decision is always made correctly, they are arguing wether the correct decision could or couldn’t have been alloweed to be reached.
As was pointed out earlier, if the exact same call was made against Fofana
The problem is that there’s no consistency in refereeing across the games in Serie A. One time a call is given, the next, in a very similar situation it isn’t and its a source of great frustration for clubs and players.
If this call went against Milan I would feel hard done by it as I didn’t think there was much in it to be honest. You gotta remember that not every contact in the box is a penalty. Maybe Danti would have gotten to the rebound, maybe not. But if that play happened elsewhere on the field, doubt it would have gotten called.
We’re lucky this went in our favor.
If I’m not mistaken, a similar scenario played out in one of the Inter games where a player was pulled back by the shoulder in the box and a penalty was not awarded…
I agree partially – it’s a 50/50 but I would give a penalty for the intention and contact he made. As several others mentioned, Fofana received a yellow for a similar foul in the midfield, so in those circumstances I would be mad if they did not give a penalty.
Also, Fiorentina should be more mad with their player, not VAR, as his action was more stup*d than any of Theo’s red cards (including the Tshirt incident)…
I can’t be gas lighted, that is a clear and obvious error if the VAR didn’t make that call…..all these rants are extremely unimportant….it is a penalty…case close
Well said, mate. Clear penalty. Parisi tried to stop Gimenez from reaching the ball – slight contact or not. If this is not a penalty, in any game at all, then, what is? The ref saw the replay, and, he also adjudged that it was it. Referees don’t favour Milan with cheap penalties. This one only saw the replay of the foul, and, did the right thing.
I can’t believe anyone is even discussing this situation. The penalty is clear and big as a house!!!
All the refs are stupid.
Parisi put his hand on Gimenez’s face and his finger poked him in the eye.
Santi went down because he felt the contact of a dirty finger on his iris. That stuff stings man, especially when someone else did it to you. Him thrashing around on the ground was indicative that his eye was in pain.
Clear pen. Never in any circumstances on ANY PART OF THE PITCH, should you put a finger into someone’s eye.
Facts!
ref took ages to make the call as he was not shown the angle until the very end that showed parisi scrapes santi on the face before pulling back his neck/shoulder. also if you look at the dynamics, this prevented santi forward momentum
side note – nkunku clear pen for 1st challenge not given by var. you get some & some you dont
nkunku v bologna
The fact that this is even up for debate shows how loaded the Italian media is with inter and Juve fans. Always trying to create controversy around Milan
the media sees only controversy around milan not with other teams,why all those hatters…if la viola fiorentina was awarded a penalty against milan there would be no comments,,,STOP BEING BIAS..
MILAN FOR EVER…
We fot a penallty and a red card in Champions league for less then this, when Tomori got sent out.
You can argue all you want but these and similar often get called so well don for Gimenez to make the most out of it. This is his job