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It’s been another rough few days for Europe’s referees. On Saturday, Chris Kavanagh and his assistants had a night to forget at Villa Park without the comfort blanket of VAR. One poor decision is forgivable, two is careless, but there were a hat-trick of howlers, with Tammy Abraham clearly offside for Aston Villa’s opener. Lucas Digne needed his own dedicated review booth, escaping with a yellow card for an agricultural tackle on Jacob Murphy and avoiding a penalty for handball. Officials ruled that Digne handled the ball outside the penalty area, an impressive feat given that he both took off and landed inside the box as he jumped to block a cross. Kavanagh and one of his assistants have been stood down by PGMO, presumably rebranded because they can’t stop dropping Ls.
Over in Italy, where refereeing errors are invariably handled in a measured, rational way, Juventus were on the end of a harsh call in Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Inter. Having already been booked, Pierre Kalulu brushed the arm of Andrea Bastoni, who went down as if clipped by a freight train. Kalulu was sent off and with no VAR review for second yellows, it was left to Juve’s directors to try and rewrite the verdict, with Damien Commoli and Giorgio Chiellini getting up in Federico La Penna’s grill at half-time. La Penna is now being hounded by online abuse and threats, with police advising him to stay at home for his own safety, while Commoli and Chiellini have now been slapped with bans.
