Former referee and current television pundit Luca Marelli has given his verdict on the handball and potential sending off incidents in the second half of Juventus’ 1-1 draw with Genoa on Friday evening.
Juve felt they had been denied a second penalty after Andrea Cambiaso’s cross struck Genoa defender Mattia Bani on the arm in an out-stretched position in the area.
Ruslan Malinovskyi was also fortunate not to have been dismissed after a high and heavy challenge on teenager Kenan Yildiz in stoppage time.
The Bianconeri had led just under half an hour into proceedings on the night after Federico Chiesa converted from the spot, before Albert Gudmundsson equalised for Genoa three minutes into the second period.
Marelli was on hand during DAZN’s coverage on Friday evening to share his thoughts on the two incidents. He agreed with the majority of the Juve fanbase that another penalty should have been awarded and raised questions over the lack of VAR intervention.
“The touch with the arm is very obvious and should have been penalised. Juventus denied a clear penalty kick” Marelli said, reported by Tuttosport.
“VAR might have been fooled by the first touch off his thigh, but that did have an influence, because his arm was already out wide. This is clearly a penalty kick, I can’t understand why the VAR didn’t call Massa up on it.”
Marelli also agreed that Malinovskyi was lucky to avoid a red card for a: “very dangerous foul on Yildiz.”