Inter hope that the second yellow card shown to Romelu Lukaku after his late equaliser in the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg against Juventus will be cancelled as they believe his celebration was misunderstood for a provocation of the Juve fans.
After tucking away his 95th minute penalty on Tuesday night, Lukaku was seen lifting his finger to his lips, which was seen as a gesture attempting to silence the Bianconeri supporters.
This is, however, not the first time that Lukaku has celebrated in such a manner. In fact, he had also made the same gesture after scoring his first goal against Sweden for Belgium during the recent international break.
On the night, referee Davide Massa deemed the celebration to be a provocation of the Juve supporters and subsequently decided to show Lukaku his second yellow card of the game.
During his post-match press conference, Simone Inzaghi claimed he hopes that Lukaku’s second yellow will be wiped out due to there being an apparent misunderstanding over the celebration from the referee.
Inzaghi pointed out a similar incident in October 2022, which saw former Premier League forward Ademola Lookman cautioned for his misunderstood celebration during the 2-2 between Atalanta and Udinese.
However, Lookman’s yellow on that occasion was not revoked, therefore it is likely that Inter will have to do without Lukaku for the second leg of the semi-final at San Siro at the end of April.