Former England manager Fabio Capello has accused Florian Wirtz of diving to win Liverpool’s penalty at Inter Milan, labelling the award of a spot-kick a ‘disgrace’.
The Reds won 1-0 in Milan thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s late penalty at the San Siro.
The Hungarian got his chance from 12 yards after Alessandro Bastoni tugged on the back of Wirtz’s shirt in the penalty area.
The pull on the shirt was pretty clear, but it was also very obvious that Wirtz exaggerated the impact it had on him, throwing himself to the floor when he felt the tug.
VAR intervened to give a penalty and it proved to be a match-winning decision for Liverpool, but Capello was not impressed, saying the referee should never have rewarded him with a penalty.
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‘He lets himself fall, that’s a dive,’ Capello said on Sky Sports Italia.
‘The referee saw everything. I don’t understand why VAR intervened here.
‘If that’s a foul, then we’ll get a penalty after every corner kick in the future, because everyone’s always fighting, everyone’s holding onto their jerseys. That was unfair.
‘It’s a disgrace to award such a penalty’.
Inter’s former Arsenal and Manchester United man Henrikh Mkhitaryan was also not impressed, telling Prime Video: ‘I don’t know how they came up with a penalty that never existed but this is football.
‘We are not happy. If you give a penalty like this, then every contact in the box is a penalty.’
Former referee Keith Hackett had a different opinion, telling Football Insider: ‘There is a great deal of criticism of the award of a penalty kick to Liverpool for a shirt pull.
‘Holding is an offence and you can see the shirt has left the body of the Liverpool player.
‘Now, yes, his exaggeration was pretty appalling. But the offence has taken place and the penalty kick is the correct award.’
Inter manager Cristian Chivu said of the incident: ‘I rarely comment on refereeing decisions. I talk about education and what we ought to be teaching people, especially in the Champions League.
‘The referee was in an excellent position to view the whole incident, and he decided it did not warrant a penalty.
‘When VAR intervenes, it has to understand the dynamics of the game. We must accept the decisions and learn to combat against injustice, be more wary of these things, and try to focus on the good things that we can do.’
