France Espoirs – France saved by the referee, Italy is furious: “Playing without VAR at this level is incredible”

France starts its Euro Espoirs with a hell of a hold-up. First, Amine Gouiri’s teammates suffered frankly before overcoming the Italians (2-1) but they mainly benefited from three arbitration decisions at best contentious, at worst frankly scandalous. Dutch referee Allard Lindhout’s decisions weighed heavily. First on a forgotten penalty after a hand from Pierre Kalulu in his area (51st). The arm is detached from the body and the penalty seems obvious. Then, on the second goal of Les Bleuets (62nd), Gouriri recovers the ball with a very high foot which could, again, have been sanctioned.

But the action, which is already making headlines on all Italian sites, takes place two minutes after the end of regulation time. Bellanova crosses, the ball hits the post, goes into the goal before being released in a hurry (and with the help of the arm?) by Lukeba. Neither the referee nor the line judge, probably in a bad position, intervened despite the outraged reactions of the Italians.

Neither VAR nor Goal Line

This Euro Espoirs is played without the help of VAR or Goal Line Technology. What trigger the cold anger of the Italian coach. “I find it difficult to talk about the gamecommented Nicolato on the Rai. I had the impression that the refereeing decisions had a lot of impact, even if we played against a great team. Playing without VAR at this level is incredible“. And this Thursday, it was the Bleuets who took advantage of it.