Juventus red card fury overshadows thrilling Derby d’Italia battle with Inter

At the end of a spectacular, ferocious Derby d’Italia, none of Juventus’s players nor their manager would answer questions from the media. Instead, their chief executive, Damien Comolli, and director of football strategy, Giorgio Chiellini, spoke on the club’s behalf. They were not there to discuss tactical nuance.

“You can’t talk about football today,” said Chiellini. “Something unacceptable happened.” Comolli offered an even more grave verdict: “Juventus lost three points, but Italian football lost much more.” A strong claim. If true, might Comolli have done better to acknowledge his part in it?

At half-time, Comolli had to be physically separated from the referee, Federico La Penna. The Juve manager, Luciano Spalletti, was shouting at the official as the teams headed into the tunnel but even he seemed to realise things were escalating in an ugly direction when Comolli arrived to join in, turning to shove him away instead.

Moments earlier, La Penna had sent off Juventus’s Pierre Kalulu, showing the defender a second yellow card for a challenge on Alessandro Bastoni. It immediately looked like a bad decision. The Inter defender had intercepted a pass and was preparing to launch a counterattack. Kalulu stepped towards him but realised he was late and stopped short of attempting a tackle.

Kalulu had, however, already reached out an arm towards his opponent. Some contact was made, though certainly not enough to cause Bastoni to fall the way he did, dragging his toe and twisting mid-air to make it appear he had been violently impeded. Less an exaggeration than outright simulation. He leapt up brandishing an imaginary card, calling for Kalulu’s dismissal.

Risky choices. Bastoni had already been booked, too, and could easily have earned himself a second yellow card, either for the dive or the attempt to manipulate a decision. Instead, he celebrated as Kalulu was dismissed. The Frenchman appealed desperately for a VAR intervention, but officials cannot review second bookings under current regulations.

That will soon change. In January, football’s law-making body, Ifab, backed plans to allow decisions on second yellows and corner awards to be checked. La Gazzetta Sportiva reported that these amendments will be implemented in time for the World Cup this summer – too late for Juventus.

Inter’s manager, Cristian Chivu, argued Saturday’s sending-off fell into a grey area, saying Kalulu had to take responsibility for raising his arm. “A light touch,” he called it, “but still a touch.” Italy’s refereeing designator, Gianluca Rocchi, saw no such ambiguity, telling the news agency Ansa that “La Penna’s decision was clearly wrong”.

“He is mortified,” said Rocchi, “and we are supporting him. But I have to say he is not the only one who made a mistake, because yesterday there was a clear simulation. The latest in a long line this season in which people are trying every way to trick us.”

The use of VAR has been a hot topic. A week earlier, Daniele De Rossi protested its heavy-handed use to award an injury-time penalty that cost his Genoa team a draw against Napoli. “The good thing this time is it happened in Juve-Inter,” he wryly observed this weekend, suggesting the higher profile of the game might lead to greater reflection from footballing authorities.

In the short term, the greatest impact might be to the scrutiny Bastoni receives for any future indiscretions. The Inter player has been criticised as much for his celebration of Kalulu’s red card as for the dive itself. On social media, even the former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta joined calls for him to be dropped by the national team.

Chivu subbed Bastoni off at half-time and was quick to withdraw Nicolò Barella after the midfielder picked up a second-half booking, acting before either player could give the referee a chance to even up the numbers.

The stakes were high. Inter had begun the weekend eight points clear, but second-place Milan still held a game in hand and the Nerazzurri have repeatedly come up short in head-to-heads against direct rivals. Before Saturday, they had failed to win any of their last 14 matches against Juventus, Napoli or Milan.

The Bianconeri are fighting a battle of their own to qualify for next season’s Champions League. They have climbed back to fourth under Spalletti but entered this round level on points with fifth-placed Roma, with Como and Atalanta both close behind.

Juventus controlled the play better than Inter while both teams had 11 players. They were better connected in midfield, players swapping fluidly between roles to thwart Inter’s press. Kalulu, Francisco Conceição and Weston McKennie were creating overloads on the right while Locatelli dropped to drag opponents out of position.

Inter took the lead against the run of play, when Luis Henrique’s attempted cross was deflected in for an own goal by Andrea Cambiaso. But the same player equalised within 10 minutes, poking home McKennie’s cross at the back post.

The shape of the game inevitably changed after the red card, but Juventus still more than held their own. Adjusting from their initial 4-2-3-1 into a 4-4-1 with Conceição replaced by the full-back Emil Holm, they compacted and forced Inter to go wide while maintaining a threat on the counter.

Not until the Nerazzurri sent on Francesco Pio Esposito with a little under half an hour left to go did they really start to threaten a winner. The 20-year-old offered a target that hitherto was missing for endless crosses pumped into the penalty area. In the 76th minute, he rose to glance a header past Michele Di Gregorio.

This could have been a deserving occasion to talk about Pio Esposito, who looks ever more like the No 9 that Italy have missed for a generation. “These are the nights you dream about when you start playing football,” he said. “A goal in the Derby d’Italia is the absolute tops. I’m so happy.”

An exhausted Juventus could have caved. They didn’t. A ball forward found Bremer, who looked more a veteran target man than the centre-back that he is as he redistributed it with back to goal to McKennie. The American crossed for Locatelli, who carved a shot expertly across his body into the far bottom corner.

Nobody could be more deserving of this moment than the Juventus captain, the game’s standout performer. But his night still ended in heartbreak. When the ball reached Piotr Zielinski on the edge of the Juventus area in the 90th minute, Locatelli threw himself in front of his shot. His tired legs could not get there, and the Poland international’s shot found the bottom of the net.

Inter celebrated a win that strengthens their command of the title race. They are not home and dry yet, with 13 games to go, but have only dropped two points in the last 13. Milan will likely need to beat them in next month’s derby to stand a chance.

As for Juventus, they can find plenty of positives if they allow themselves to, once anger about the red card subsides. Contrary to Chiellini’s insistence, there is probably quite a lot to be gained from talking about the exceptional football Spalletti’s team played on a brilliantly entertaining showpiece occasion, even though the circumstances were unjust.

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