The refereeing oversight that occurred this weekend in the Primavera championship and which robbed Toro of victory is sensational. We are at the fifteenth matchday, the match is between Turin and Genoa, the Granata are playing at home at the Valentino Mazzola in Orbassano. The offending episode occurs in the 95th minute, when the home team coached by Francesco Baldini is ahead 3-2: the Grifone finds the equalizer on an irregular action that arises from a clear offside position by Mendolia. The images are very clear: the offside is clear, with the rossoblù striker in front of the last Toro defender by at least three or maybe even four metres, at the end of the match Mister Baldini will talk about five metres. The referee is Luca De Angeli, the assistant who makes the error is Alberto Mandarino (the other assistant is Vincenzo D’Ambrosio Giordano). In the video, among other things, you can see that Mandarino is not even positioned in line with the defenders. Incredibly, the assistant does not signal and the referee lets the action flow: a moment later it will be Mendolia himself who scores the 3-3 goal.
apologies to Turin
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Toro had ended the first half ahead with a score of 3-0 thanks to Gabellini’s brace and Olinga’s center, then in the second half they suffered Genoa’s comeback with Romano on a penalty, Spicuglia in the 90th minute and the aforementioned three-pointer from Mendolia in the 95th minute. At the end of the match, Toro rightly protested for the huge and decisive wrong suffered and the apologies of the referees then arrived in the locker room. This is what Granata coach Francesco Baldini said after the match: “There are five meters of offside, in addition to the foul on our defender Kugyela: the boy who is offside is not interested in the ball and goes to tackle it – says the Toro coach -. The referees apologised, but it’s too easy like this because I wasted a week’s work and in the Primavera there are relegations, life is at stake. I cannot accept an offside by five meters. Is it possible that in 2025 we are still here in the situation where a linesman decides a match?”.