The conversation that took place between the officials during the Samuele Ricci incident in Sunday’s derby has been revealed.
In the closing minutes Inter tried everything to get back level against Milan, launching cross after cross into the box. It was after one of these that Ricci blocked a pass from Denzel Dumfries to Pio Esposito with his arm during a scramble, leading to appeals for a penalty.
The Italian media and experts have almost unanimously agreed that it was not a spot kick, because of the proximity of the ricochet, the fact Ricci was pulling his arm back into his body, and that it was in front of his midriff rather than by his side.
Like every Tuesday, DAZN released a new episode of ‘Open VAR’ a program analysing refereeing incidents from the most recent round. MilanNews have relayed what Doveri and the VAR room had to say.
Referee: “Chest, nothing, nothing, nothing, all natural.”
In the VAR room, they review the incident and within seconds confirm Doveri’s decision: “Check completed.”
As soon as the game stopped, the Inter players immediately went to Doveri who stated: “Already checked, nothing!”
The VAR room commented: “Never, never. Try removing everything. Besides, it’s in the body, so it doesn’t do anything.”
Tonolini’s assessment
Present in the DAZN studio, CAN (National Referees Commission) member Mauro Tonolini commented on the incident.
“The incident was correctly assessed on the pitch by Doveri. What we read about the incident surprised us, we have no doubts because it is an arm that remains in shape and Ricci even tries to remove it,” he said.
“If the ball had not been hit by his arm it would have gone to his chest, so it is a tackle in shape. I would add that it is more effective to evaluate certain incidents dynamically rather than in slow motion which could create doubts that should not exist for us in a situation like this. The VAR had no doubts and therefore there was no need to do an on-field review.”
Inter don’t win games like this in the current season unless big calls go their way.
Which is why they’ve only won 1 single big game, because Bastoni, the cheat that he is, got Kalulu sent off.
Very good call. If he was armless he would still have cought the ball with his torso. So the arm didn’t do anything. I like that interpretation.