Internazionale stretched their lead at the top of Serie A to 15 points with a 2-1 home win over Genoa on Monday, but controversy lingered over the decision to award the hosts a decisive penalty.
Simone Inzaghi had good reason to celebrate his 300th Serie A match as a manager, with his Inter side winning all nine of their league games so far this calendar year and equalling the points total they achieved in the whole of last season.
“Our destiny is in our hands,” Inzaghi told Sky Sport after the game. “We put 15 points between Juventus, Milan and us in 33 days … [but] we can’t pat ourselves on the back, we have to look forward to the future.”
Genoa put up a fight from the start and came close to scoring midway through the first half with a header from Mateo Retegui that the Inter goalkeeper, Yann Sommer, saved. Albert Gudmundsson got to the rebound first but could not hit the target.
Kristjan Asllani broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark after receiving Alexis Sánchez’s through ball and firing into the roof of the net from inside the penalty area.
Eight minutes later, Inter were awarded a penalty after Morten Frendrup appeared to bring down Nicolò Barella in the area. The referee, Giovanni Ayroldi, was called to check the VAR pitchside monitor, but stuck with his original decision despite replays not clearly showing a foul.
Sánchez converted the penalty to put Inter 2-0 up, while another camera angle – which was apparently not shown to Ayroldi on the monitor – showed that Frendrup had deflected Barella’s shot into the side netting.
Genoa got back into the match nine minutes after the break when Johan Vásquez volleyed home a clearance from the Inter defender Stefan de Vrij. The visitors then thought they had equalised when the substitute Vitinha netted, but there was an offside in the buildup.
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The Genoa manager, Alberto Gilardino, was magnanimous about the decision after the game. “It didn’t look like a penalty on the field and now seeing the footage, we have the certainty,” Gilardino told Sky.
“It is very dubious, but I prefer to talk about the performance from my lads of great courage and quality. [Officials] are human beings, everyone can make mistakes, but the odds should be reduced when you view the footage again.”
The defeat leaves Genoa in 12th place with 33 points. Inter streak further ahead in the title race on 72 points after second-placed Juventus lost 2-1 at Napoli on Sunday.
