DAZN refereeing expert Luca Marelli gives his verdict on the Olivier Giroud penalty or red card appeals during Milan’s game with Atalanta.
The incident occurred just before half-time at San Siro, with Giroud going down on the very edge of the area after contact from Berat Djimsiti.
The France international was booked for dissent and VAR did not intervene on the penalty appeal.
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Former referee Marelli explained on DAZN that these were all correct decisions, because VAR could not make a call seeing as the contact was outside the penalty area, even if he considered the challenge “a clear foul.”
As for a potential red card for preventing a clear scoring opportunity, Marelli noted this too was not really feasible for two reasons.
Giroud did not have control of the ball when he went down, while he was also moving away from the goal, so it could not be considered a clear scoring opportunity.
The matter of ‘last man’ is no longer considered when showing a red card.
#MilanAtalanta, accese proteste a fine primo tempo di #Giroud (📸 DAZN): c’è il fallo del giocatore di #Gasperini (incrocio fra gambe, non la spinta), ma è fuori area.
Manca però il fischio, e il conseguente cartellino giallo.
Ammonito il francese per le troppe proteste.#SerieA pic.twitter.com/FN5Bpw4AO2— Errori Arbitrali (@erroriarbitrali) May 15, 2022