Thiago Motta was furious after Bologna were held to a 0-0 draw by Monza, complaining there have been ‘four decisive refereeing errors against us this season.’
The Rossoblu had indeed already been in the news, most notably for the Samuel Iling Junior foul on Dan Ndoye in a 1-1 draw with Juventus, which the refereeing designator confirmed should’ve been a penalty.
VAR did not intervene that time and the Video Assistant Referee is under the spotlight again after today’s goalless stalemate with Monza.
The referee let play go on after a Joshua Zirkzee challenge on Luca Caldirola, which seemed to get the ball, and only blew his whistle for a foul after the Lewis Ferguson header entered the net.
VAR could therefore have ruled on the incident, but decided not to recall the referee to evaluate it again.
“We all saw that the goal should not have been disallowed. There have been too many incidents going against Bologna in the first few rounds and it is impossible to stay silent,” Thiago Motta told DAZN.
“There have been four decisive refereeing errors against us this season and it is just too many. I don’t understand why they have meetings to discuss errors when these things happen on the field.”
Bologna ended the match down to 10 men, as Alexis Saelemaekers was booked for dissent, then immediately received another card for sarcastically applauding the referee.
“Saelemaekers knows he was wrong, he must not do what he did, and he has apologised to the team. Obviously, I congratulate Monza on their defending, both teams played well today, but the officials let us down.”
Monza had also seen a goal disallowed for the tightest of margins, as the footage from the VAR shows Dany Mota Carvalho’s kneecap was offside.