Penalty on Mudryk: expert opinion of the Italian referee

Former referee Gianpaolo Calvarese, who has worked more than three hundred Serie A matches, commented on the penalty not awarded in the Italy-Ukraine match.

Gianpaolo Calvarese (photo: juventus.com)

"Let's start with the premise: it is always difficult for a referee to assess the work of a colleague. We all make mistakes, we are all human. But the mistake of the Spaniard Gil Manzano became obvious on live TV.

From a technical point of view, the dynamics of the episode are quite simple. There is a rolling ball. The first person to reach it wins. The footage shows that the ball is going towards Mudryk, not Cristante. The Italian is late, and there is contact, which looks like a foul.

What I don't like is, first of all, the referee's body language immediately after the contact. The replays show that Gil Manzano (in a great position with a great view) is standing still, without any reaction. He does not point to the 11-metre mark and does not give any clear signals to let the players know that a penalty has not been awarded. His first reaction is to wait, and the footage shows him turning to the Ukrainians and saying: "Let's wait for the VAR".

Nothing could be more wrong. Firstly, because the arbitrator's job is to make a decision, even in the era of the ADR, when the temptation to wait for help from technology can be strong. Secondly, it puts the colleague in front of the monitor in a difficult position, effectively shifting responsibility for the episode to him. This, in my opinion, is the biggest mistake of the Spanish arbitrator - he decided not to decide!

However, the HAC also made a mistake. Yes, the threshold for interference in UEFA international matches is quite high, but "low" contacts are much easier to assess than "high" ones (when you have to measure the intensity of the force used on the field).

However, let's also try to explain this decision, because there is always a motivation behind a mistake. The reasons that could have motivated the BAP not to intervene could be different: Cristante stops a moment before he realises he is too late, he does not step on the opponent's foot, the contact is only with his left foot on the shin, and, most importantly, Mudryk seems to jump immediately after the contact.

But can the Ukrainian's behaviour, the fact that he emphasises the fall, justify the decision not to give a penalty? Of course not, because at a high level, decisions have to be based on a limited number of elements at hand. Among them, dynamics should have a greater proportion. In this case, it is obvious and should have led to the maximum penalty," Yuriy Shevchenko, an expert on Italian football, analyses the Italian football on Telegram.