Coach Paolo Nicolato couldn’t help but be shocked by the number of refereeing errors that saw Italy lose the opening Under-21 European Championship game to France. ‘It’s not possible, it affected the result too much.’
It was known before the tournament began that UEFA would not use VAR or goal-line technology, at least during the group stage, and that has immediately proved disastrous for the regularity of the competition in Romania and Georgia.
“Honestly, I struggle to talk about the game today,” Nicolato told RAI Sport.
“It’s not possible to see refereeing like this and I have the impression it affected the result far too much. We were also unlucky, even if we lost to a great team. It was a good performance, we deserved more.”
Along with a likely foul in the build-up to the second France goal and a Pierre Kalulu handling offence, Italy had scored the equaliser for 2-2 in stoppages with a Raoul Bellanova header that bounced off the upright and was cleared after it had crossed the line.
However, without even the most basic goal-line technology, the referee and his assistants did not spot it had visibly crossed over.
Italy now have to win the head-to-head with Switzerland, who beat Norway 2-1 in their group opener.