Italian pundit and former referee Graziano Cesari called the decision to award a penalty and red card for Fikayo Tomori’s tough on Mason Mount ‘complete madness’ as Chelsea beat 10-man Milan.
The incident was only 18 minutes into the match at San Siro and inevitably transformed the whole course of the evening.
Jorginho converted the penalty and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then met a Mount through ball.
It all goes back to the red card and speaking on Mediaset Infinity, refereeing pundit Cesari was damning in his analysis of German official Daniel Siebert.
“It’s completely incomprehensible. The intensity of Tomori’s touch on the shoulder is not strong enough to cause a penalty.
“The referee says that Tomori held Mount, but the images do not show that. Tomori’s hands never grip Mount, you cannot call that a tug. It is at best a touch, and Mount is allowed to continue and shoot.
“It was complete madness from Siebert. As for VAR, they are not allowed to judge the intensity of contact. The fact is, the referee already had the whistle in his mouth on the first touch on Mount’s shoulder, it is a non-existent penalty.”
The replays do show that Tomori twice touched Mount’s shoulder, but had let go some considerable time before the Chelsea player got his shot away.
It is hard therefore to consider that touch to be preventing a clear scoring opportunity and red card.