Gian Piero Gasperini slammed the ‘absolute chaos’ on the way referees evaluate handball after Atalanta’s controversial Europa League quarter-final exit to RB Leipzig.
La Dea were eliminated from the Europa League quarter-final after a 2-0 home defeat, decided by Christopher Nkunku’s brace.
The first leg had been 1-1 in Germany, but once again this season, Atalanta proved more effective on their travels than at the Gewiss Stadium.
“It was a balanced game, we thought we had played pretty well, even if we didn’t get that final spark,” said Gasperini in his press conference.
“We attacked constantly and didn’t get enough shots on target. RB Leipzig are undoubtedly a very good team.”
However, with the score at 0-1 this evening, the Spanish referee refused to give Atalanta a penalty for Dani Olmo’s handling offence, even after VAR told him to view it again with the on-field review.
“The strange thing is that just before that the referee gave a free kick for handball that seemed much less of a handling offence than the one in the penalty area. There is absolute chaos when it comes to the handball rules, as even the same referee can judge situations differently 30 seconds apart.”
Nkunku opened the scoring on a counter-attack down the right and pull-back for the tap-in from six yards.
“Unfortunately, that is often the way, Leipzig close up and then go on the counter with pace. Sometimes they do it very well. We’ve been doing this a lot lately, attacking for long periods and not finding that final pass or decisive shot.”
A similar issue has been clear in Serie A, where Atalanta have fallen behind in the race for European qualification.
Now that they are out of the Europa League, they need to focus on recovering lost ground.
“We still have a chance, although we need a lot of victories to get back up the standings.”