Juventus Turin turned a deficit into a win in injury time – supposedly. The VAR conceded the goal, but missed something.
The sympathy will have been limited for many Tifosi. After all, Juventus Turin has been favored often enough – sometimes outrageously. In the history of the record champions there is even a forced relegation due to sports fraud that will stand up in court.
Many Italian football fans will probably have heard with great glee what happened to Juve on Sunday evening (September 11th, 2022) in the 2-2 draw against US Salernitana. It was a spectacle with many twists and turns and a punchline that should be out of the question in the age of video assistants.
0-2 deficit at the break
Juventus were 2-0 down at half-time against US Salernitana. The first defeat of the season threatened after a start that was expandable anyway due to three draws in the previous games.
Bremer scored the goal in the 51st minute. But before four minutes of stoppage time were displayed, there was no further goal. Leonardo Bonucci scored it in the follow-up shot of a penalty he had awarded. That was in the third minute of stoppage time.
Just over a minute later, Arkadiusz Milik headed the ball back into the outsider’s goal from a corner kick. Juventus players, officials and fans were in ecstasy. Milik took off his jersey and therefore saw the yellow-red card from referee Matteo Marcenaro.
The Salernitana player, who was ready to kick off, then misinterpreted a gesture and a whistle from the referee. Thinking the game was over, he picked up the ball and threw it away in anger.
Not until the 102nd minute
The players went towards the cabins, there was a pack formation on the sidelines with mutual pushing and verbal arguments. Referee Marcenaro rushed over in his sixth appearance in Serie A and observed the scene.
At that moment, television viewers were informed that Milik’s goal may have been an offside offense by Bonucci, who had actively gone for the ball in the six-yard box.
When the pictures were shown, the case seemed clear because Bonucci was offside. Marcenaro took the goal back after looking at the images on the monitor and then dealt three red cards. Juve’s players Juan Cuadrado, Federico Fazio and Turin coach Massimiliano Allegri were sent off.
The game was then restarted. After 101:30 minutes it was finally over.
But the game still had a punch line. A larger frame showed that Salernitana’s Antonio Candreva, who ran towards the touchline for the corner kick, and goalkeeper Luigi Sepe were closer to the goal line than Bonucci when Milik’s header was on. TV channel Sky Italia claimed that Candreva was 2.90 meters from the goal line and Bonucci was 3.42 meters at the decisive moment.
Screenshots from different perspectives circulating on social media show with a very high probability that the referees were actually not shown all the relevant images.
An objection from Juventus should be hopeless. Under the Rules, a game cannot be replayed even if the VAR is proven to have made a clear mistake.