Atalanta were furious during their Europa League quarter-final with RB Leipzig after referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz refused to give a penalty after a VAR review, which pundit Tancredi Palmeri dubbed ‘scandalous.’
La Dea were trailing 1-0 at the time, 2-1 on aggregate, and needed a goal to force extra time.
Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz had awarded a free kick for handball, though it seemed as if the defender had his hand in front of his face and was trying to protect himself in the wall.
Nonetheless, on the resulting free kick, the official refused to award a penalty for a clearly worse handling offence from Dani Olmo.
Even after being told to check it again by his VAR assistant with the on-field review, Lahoz stuck by the original decision.
Olmo charged down Ruslan Malinovskyi’s free kick with the upper part of one arm and also the hand on the other arm, which was next to his face and not protecting it.
I held Mateu Lahoz as one of best refs.
Utterly scandalous the penalty he has just not awarded to Atalanta against Leipzig#ATARBL— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) April 14, 2022
Atalanta failed regardless of this incident. They were nowhere near their best.
Gasperini should be sacked. Team struggles every game to score especially at Home. Musso, Muriel, pasalic, Ilicic, Palomino, Toloi, Zapacosta, Pazella et al need to exit with the Coach.
The squad has won3/14 in its past Serie A games. That is hopeless frorm and one wonders if Gasperini ha smade very poor personnel decisions e.g, Boga, Zapacosta, Musso, Pazella etc. For 4 montsh or so the squad has played for most games sans any aggression of focus. Its been a shambles!!
You guys do all realize you are talking about Atalanta, RIGHT??? A little MINNOW team that has been in Champions league several times now. Yes, their form has been VERY poor as of late, however you are all speaking like this is Juventus or Milan. Be serious please. A small team like this that has overachieved for numerous years in a row now and reached for the stars is allowed to have a rough patch in form.
Well said @Giulio, finally some sense and balance. Tough call for them as that could have changed the tie.