Cagliari manager shares honest take on Ricci handball: "Not a penalty for me"

"I already said last week that I don't like commenting on the referee's performance. I have to be honest, that's not a penalty for me. If it had hit the left arm, you might think he was extending the silhouette, but not the right. We must also learn to help referees, because at the slightest error, people try to make it into a weekly disaster. I prefer to think the officials are doing their work in good faith and we must try to help them, not stir up controversy,"

"Cagliari's number 9 attempts an overhead kick that is deflected by Ricci's arm. The check was rather quick, this arm contact is not punishable, and Ricci was lucky: he touched the ball with his right arm, very close to his body and near the opponent's foot. If he had touched the ball with his left, it would have been a penalty because his arm was much more open and farther from his body,"

Semih Kilicsoy's overhead kick was goal-bound but was deflected by Samuele Ricci's right arm in the second half. Referee Rosario Abisso did not award a penalty and VAR did not intervene. Cagliari manager Fabio Pisacane judged the contact not a penalty and emphasized helping referees rather than escalating errors into controversy. Pisacane noted that a left-arm contact would have appeared different because the arm was more extended. Refereeing expert Luca Marelli concurred that the contact was not punishable, adding that a left-arm touch would likely have been penalised.

Read at SempreMilan