Experts believes Juventus wrongly denied penalty in 2-2 Lazio draw: ‘Negligent’

Experts believe that Juventus were wrongly denied a penalty during the first half of their eventual 2-2 draw against Lazio in Serie A on Sunday evening. 

Should Juventus have been awarded a penalty against Lazio?

The Bianconeri had to fight back through goals from Weston McKennie and Pierre Kalulu, the latter with 15 seconds of the game remaining, to claim a 2-2 draw after falling behind to goals from Pedro and Gustav Isaksen on Sunday evening. 

During the first half, however, with the scores still at 0-0, Teun Koopmeiners found the back of the net from the edge of the area, but saw his effort ruled out as Khephren Thuram was obstructing the goalkeeper’s view in an offside position.

In the build-up to that incident, though, Juan Cabal went to ground on his way into the area under the clumsy challenge of Lazio defender Mario Gila. He stayed on the deck for the entirety of the following play.  

A penalty was not awarded in real time, and that decision was upheld after a lengthy VAR check that resulted in Koopmeiners’s goal being ruled out. 

However, experts believe that this was the wrong call and that Juventus should have been awarded a spot-kick for Gila’s foul on Cabal. 

“This is a negligent intervention,” said refereeing expert Luca Marelli on DAZN after full-time. 

“It doesn’t matter that he’s already offloaded the ball, what matters is whether the intervention was regular or irregular. Here, Gila comes in negligently on Cabal, and in my opinion, this is a penalty kick.”