Milan coach Stefano Pioli had two complaints about refereeing decisions in the Europa League defeat to Roma, so Sky Sport Italia analysed them.
The Rossoneri were beaten 1-0 at San Siro by a Gianluca Mancini header on Paulo Dybala’s corner.
Pioli noted in his post-match interview and press conference that there were two controversial incidents he wanted clarification on, as did Matteo Gabbia.
The first was in the build-up to the goal, as Romelu Lukaku might’ve been offside in the run that eventually earned that corner.
Sky Sport Italia showed Pioli the footage and confirmed that with the only real angle they had at their disposal, it was impossible to tell if Lukaku was onside or not.
As it was leading up to a corner, there was no way that VAR could intervene anyway.
The second incident was late on when striker Tammy Abraham went to nod another corner clear and it struck the top of his arm.
It seemed to graze his head and then strike the arm, as Abraham appeared to close his eyes before the ball came to him and misjudged the distance.
The Sky Sport Italia pundits agreed it was a ‘grey area’ and difficult to consider this a ‘clear and obvious error’ that would warrant VAR intervention.
The fact that in Serie A, the officials do tend to give penalties for handling offences like this and in Europe they generally want something more obvious, is another matter entirely.
Former referee and television pundit Gianpaolo Calvarese also defined it as a ‘grey zone’ and noted his body language was ‘congruous’ with an attempt to head it away.
The arm was also raised, so the verdict was that if the referee had assigned a penalty or waived play on, VAR would not have intervened regardless.
“VAR was introduced to resolve clear and obvious errors, not dubious incidents.”
When it comes to handball, ultimately there is still a great deal of leeway given for interpretation of the referee.