In the last day of the championship, many fans and journalists have discussed the decision about VAR and the referee’s judgment about the two goals: that of Mertens in Atalanta-Napoli and Kessiè in Cagliari-Milan.
In Both cases the attacking player seems a few centimeters ahead of the defender and many fans have wondered why the VAR did not call back any of the goals.
The explanation comes from the recent clarifications from Rizzoli about the behavior of assistants and VAR in the case of offside. Two directives illustrated by the designator: the offside flag is immediately raised in case of an obvious offside (coaches ‘ request to avoid possible injuries, unnecessary shots or stoppages in the game) the evaluation on the field showed that the offside was a matter of centimeters and the VAR (video assisted replay) has no conclusive images online to prove it, therefore relying on the referee’s decision.
This second reason falls precisely in what happened in Bergamo and Cagliari: both Mertens and Kalinic deviated little from the defenders by an inch. As a result, the cameras were not in line and therefore could not provide conclusive evidence. That is why the referees Orsato and Guida, by giving reason to their assistants, followed the proper precautions and were in fact right in validating the goals in both scenarios.
