Mi Sports: The 12-yard call was delayed for 8 seconds. Inter Milan suspected that the 12-yard ruling was not the referee’s intention.
6686 Sports, October 26, according to "Gazzetta dello Sport" reported that in Naples' match against Inter Milan, De Bruyne's penalty kick of 12 yards in the 33rd minute became the most controversial focus of the game. This ruling was not only a tortuous process, but also caused strong dissatisfaction among Inter Milan players due to the 4 minutes and 20 seconds of review and the 8-second delay in whistleblowing.
In the 29th minute of the game, Naples launched an attack. After completing the cooperation with Anguissa, Di Lorenzo broke into the Inter Milan three-second zone from the right and went straight to goalkeeper Sommer. Behind him, Mkhitaryan first slightly pulled Di Lorenzo's uniform, and then his right leg came into contact with Di Lorenzo's left leg. Di Lorenzo immediately fell to the ground, and Acerbi in front of him also slid to block the shot.
However, the referee Mariani did not make an immediate decision and the game continued. It was not until 8 seconds later that Mariani suddenly blew the whistle, pointed at the twelve yard point, and ruled twelve yards. This delayed whistle immediately triggered fierce protests from Inter Milan players.
According to the "Gazzetta dello Sport" report, it was this 8-second delay that made Inter Milan suspect that the decision was not the original intention of the referee, but was prompted by the assistant referee Bindoni through the headset. Barrera and Lautaro immediately surrounded Mariani and demanded an explanation. At the same time, video referee Marini and assistant video referee Pezuto conducted a detailed review of more than 4 minutes at the monitoring center in Lisa.
Judging from the slow-motion replay, Mkhitaryan’s pulling action on Di Lorenzo was extremely slight, and the subsequent leg contact between the two also fell into the category of appropriate confrontation. Acerbi's sliding tackle clearly caught the ball and did not constitute a violation. There were no obvious code-level violations in the entire process.
The review process of the video referee was extremely long. In the end, Mariani insisted on changing the decision to 12 yards after communicating with the video referee team. It took more than 4 minutes and 20 seconds for De Bruyne to reach the 12-yard point and score the penalty, breaking the deadlock on the field.
It is worth mentioning that Mkhitaryan was also injured and fell to the ground during this confrontation and was unable to continue the game and was eventually replaced. De Bruyne also left the field injured after making a 12-yard penalty.
