“Cakir, you again.” The Italians saw the controversial outcome of yesterday's Milan-Atleti coming. The antecedents with the Turkish braid invited pessimism: with it, over 32 games, the Bel Paese teams only won 10, with 18 defeats and four draws. In several of them, the referee made very controversial decisions: It happened during the disastrous Sweden-Italy of 2017, the 2015 Champions League final between Juve and Barcelona, the Barcelona-Naples of 2020 … And yesterday.
The Italian press denounced the red to Kessié, but above all the decisive penalty for the mattress victory. In the play, before the touch with Kalulu's arm there was another from Lemar, something that defined “disastrous” the performance of both the referee and the VAR. Stefano Pioli, Milan coach, underlined this after the match: “The referee was not the best on the grass. Kessié was already booked and for his foul a double yellow in the 30th minute seemed excessive, and on the penalty, Kalulu's rival touches first with his arm“.
The press was even more blunt. So much 'La Gazzetta dello Sport' What 'Tuttosport' they spoke on their covers of “robbery of Milan”, and the penalty was defined “non-existent” by both rotaries and by the 'Corriere dello Sport', whose main headline was “what a rage.” Fabio Capello, in 'Sky Sport', it was also very hard against Cakir: “He has ruined the game, he did not know how to assess well and neither did the VAR help him“.
The sad end of the game, yes, did not cancel the praise for the great start of the game by the Milanisti, who even the red one to Kessié were better: “Milan played great, with great quality against a very difficult team. They did splendid things. “Said the ex-Madridista.