Refereeing expert Luca Marelli believes Atalanta defender Jose Luis Palomino deserved a red card for his tackle on Paulo Dybala, which left the Roma man unable to put his left foot down.
The incident occurred in the final minutes of the 3-1 defeat at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo and Palomino was shown a yellow card for the lunge.
Dybala was in agony afterwards, having caught his left foot under the defender’s body, but continued because all the substitutions had been completed, even though he visibly could not even put his foot down on the turf.
It even went viral in Argentina, where their commentators were shocked to see Dybala brought down in this way by a fellow countryman.
Reviewing the footage, DAZN refereeing expert and former official Marelli said that VAR could not intervene because the referee was close by and evaluated the foul himself.
“However, considering it was a two-footed tackle, going in with violence and with little chance of getting the ball, in my view this is a red card offence.”
It remains to be seen whether Dybala will be able to recover in time for Saturday’s Serie A showdown with Milan, which becomes even more important now the two teams are level in fourth place on 56 points.