There was some controversy involved in AC Milan’s 2-1 defeat to Atalanta last night, as pointed out by Paulo Fonseca. Charles De Ketelaere scored against his old club, but experts agree that the goal should have been disallowed.
Fonseca was livid with the referees after the game and made that very clear in his interview after the game. Above all, he pointed out that the fist goal was an obvious foul on Theo Hernandez by De Ketelaere, as the latter basically climbed up the left-back.
Luca Marelli, the former referee and current expert for DAZN, said the following about the incident (via MilanNews)…
“The referee evaluates the intensity of the push, VAR cannot intervene. But in my opinion, this was a goal that should have been disallowed on the pitch: De Ketelaere’s action of leaning on his hands is irregular because it doesn’t allow Theo Hernandez to make the movement he wanted to make,” he stated.
Former referee Gianpaolo Calvarese added to the discussion and agreed with Marelli: “A header from De Ketelaere, who beats Maignan on a set piece. Although the Belgian jumps high, he immediately leans on Theo with both hands and prevents him from jumping by going into a tackle,” he stated.
Foul or no foul, the feeling is still that Milan should have done a lot better on the pitch. They are now 12 points behind Atalanta in the standings and could also find it difficult to challenge for the Champions League.
Congratulations to Fonseca for bringing Milan qualified to the UEFA Conference League 2025-2026
You are far too optimistic my friend.
It’s a freaking contact sport and Theo clearly overreacts and makes a dolphin dive.
I seriously miss the old days of the sport where there was no fair play, that was a mans sport and some players would continue playing even if they lost some teeth. nowadays it’s a bunch of overpaid players who at first contact dives and cares more about their twitter and instagram profiles than being willing to bleed and die for the club they represents.
I don’t think you can your hands on the shoulders of the guy in front of you when jumping for a header. Similarly, the guybin front cannot arch his back and duck. There are specific rules about these things as far as I know
It looked fair to me even and if I thought otherwise I would also complain about the refs decision but even though that there is some contact Theo by his constant diving and complaining sets himself up to lose as every referee around clearly knows he does that several times each match. There is an old story called The boy who cried wolf…. seems fitting in this case.
Totally agree 👍
It was a fair goal.
Theo exaggerates the contact.
CDK jumped straight up and the just protected his space.
It could of gone either way – some refs would’ve blown for a foul – ours didn’t, which just about sums up our luck with them.
Agree – I’ve seen those given. But that’s not even the issue.
The real issues are Theo’s continuing declining form, Emerson’s defensive liabilities and overall Fonseca’s wrong approach to a game we had to win…
De Ketelaere jump over Theo and that never was foul
50/50 if I’m being generous. It could have gone either way.
To be honest, even if it was chalked off they’d probably get another esp in the second half where they controlled the game completely
Remember that disallowed Monza goal? Well, it’s called karma. Theo is a lazy diver who has confused referees so many times, they choose not to bite it anymore, even if there are grounds for it in some situations. The poster above me made a good analogy with the boy who cried wolf.
Thank you good sir. Yeah it has gradually happened over time as he got away with a lot more diving earlier with us and the referees definitely has gotten tired of it by now. I’ve always hated diving as players in my opinion should continue fighting unless they are actually really hurt but one thing is that he sometimes does it further up the field but not standing his ground in the penalty box is a completely different matter.
If Theo goes up strong instead of diving he won’t get a free header. Instead he dives, doesn’t get a foul which is the correct call. Play the ball, stop diving and whining and he may actually help the team.