Varying Opinions On The Penalty Awarded To Atalanta After They Held AC Milan To A Draw
Written By Onyeka Daniel
It was a rather disappointing result for AC Milan in their game for the Serie A round 26. The Rossoneri could only manage a 1-1 draw against Atalanta at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, even though they were the better side overall. The Atalanta penalty has caused debate and controversy.
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Olivier Giroud had mistimed his clearance on an Atalanta corner and accidentally caught Emil Holm on the arm and chest. The Atalanta wing-back was facing away from goal and went down clutching his face, drawing further attention to the contact, even though the boot never got higher than his chest. Referee Daniele Orsato was called back for a VAR On-Field Review and awarded the spot-kick, which Teun Koopmeiners converted for a 1-1 draw.
According to refereeing trainer, Antonio Damato, he insists that ‘this is precisely where VAR becomes so valuable.’ The decision has caused controversy, with multiple pundits arguing this is “not enough” to warrant a penalty, as the intensity of the contact and the context of Holm’s movement all suggested there was very little danger.
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Refereeing trainer and former official Antonio Damato was on DAZN after the match and gave the official view of the situation. “We consider it the correct decision from VAR, because the Atalanta player attempts to play the ball and he is prevented doing so by a clear kick from his opponent. “In terms of the rules, it is a clear foul that is to be punished with a penalty. We maintain the VAR Irrati was correct to recall the referee for an On-Field Review.
“It was a pretty clear dynamic, it did not require much analysis from the referee once he saw the footage. This is precisely the kind of situation where VAR is so valuable, because on the field these incidents are very difficult to spot. “Substantially, this is a clear foul, it had to be penalised.” DAZN refereeing expert Luca Marelli called the situation “borderline” in his live commentary, but ultimately warned “this situation is in the code and will always lead to a penalty. The intensity of the contact, whether Holm tried to make it look worse, all of that is irrelevant.”
Sky Sport Italia pundits describe this particular approach to penalties as “whoever gets there first is right,” as we have seen numerous spot-kicks for instance with two players going for the same ball, if one gets there a fraction of a second first and his foot is kicked rather than the ball, then a penalty is given.
However, it is not entirely clear if this type of situation is ‘in the code’ only in Italy and not by IFAB in general, as there was an incident during the Europa League play-off between Roma and Feyenoord when Stephan El Shaarawy had the back of his ankle kicked, but VAR did not intervene. For Gian Piero Gasperini, he acknowledged that Milan ‘made Atalanta suffer’ for a point, and he too struggled to defend the penalty call. ‘They say this is modern football.’
“Orsato went to view it on VAR. We’ve seen a lot of these VAR penalties this season. I have never been in favour of this type of penalty, but they have become frequent. Plus we’ve got credit with Milan when it comes to penalties, so it turned our way this time. “People say it is modern football, favoured also by your television coverage that tends to enjoy focusing on this sort of thing. It is really not something people of my generation recognise, but there you go.”
Meanwhile…
Stefano Pioli criticised the Atalanta penalty decision and insists Milan ‘deserved the victory’, telling Leao he must ‘always be this kind of player.’ “It is not enough for a penalty in my view, for two reasons,” Pioli told DAZN in his post match interview when asked about the incident.
“Firstly, Holm puts his hands on his face and there was no contact with his face. Secondly, it was not enough for the general approach that Orsato takes, as he is a European referee and he generally lets play run and gives few free kicks. “Giroud does absolutely nothing and if Holm doesn’t bring his hands to his face and go down, nobody would notice. He was smart.”
The hosts had 20 shots compared to eight for La Dea, and 68 per cent possession, so seemed the most frustrated at the final whistle and not just because of the penalty. “We dropped two points today, because if there is one team that deserved to win, it was us. In order to win, you need to score one more goal than the opponents, so that is a pity. “I feel it was certainly the best performance my Milan had against Atalanta. We played with character, quality, did not allow them hardly any shots on goal, but we should’ve scored a few more ourselves.
“It is the best performance of the week, it was our fifth game in 15 days, so there are many positive things, but not the result. We deserved the victory. “We wanted parity in midfield and Yacine Adli kept a close eye on Koopmeiners. Atalanta have a very unusual way of playing, almost unique, in that their forwards are quite wide. Yacine gave us a bit of coverage in the central area. “Our defenders also did good work and won most of the individual duels.”
Milan have now scraped one point from their last three competitive games, having lost to Monza and Rennes. “I feel that lately we have often showed this approach and performance. We got it wrong against Monza to begin with, whereas against Rennes we had a very large 3-0 first leg lead behind us.
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“We are giving away too many penalties, 11 is too many, evidently we are being naïve in our defending at times. At the same time, there have also been some exaggerated evaluations from the referees. “Now we must get back to work, as the next few matches in Serie A and the Europa League with Slavia Prague will tell us a lot about our season.” Rafael Leao put in one of his best ever performances for Milan, quite apart from the solo goal, and it was his first Serie A strike since September 2023.
“It was probably his best of the season, above all for his consistency. He always had these moments, but tonight he showed the right intensity throughout and also helped out when defending. “It all comes from his mentality, his belief, and he must try to always be this kind of player, because he is capable of it,” explained Pioli.
“This performance must give us all confidence and strength going forward, so we want to take the same approach against Lazio on Friday.” Considering Milan are now 13 points adrift of leaders Inter, so are they looking ahead or behind their shoulders? “Right now, we must try to stabilise third place and potentially try to catch Juventus in second.” He further added.
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