Italian media blast referee Taylor at EURO 2024: ‘Mourinho was right’ | OneFootball

Italian media and fans have been fiercely critical of English referee Anthony Taylor’s performance in EURO 2024, claiming Germany were denied a ‘clear’ penalty against Spain and ‘Jose Mourinho was right’ to insult him.

Taylor already has a very poor reputation in Italy because of some previous decisions, the most famous a Roma penalty appeal in the 2023 Europa League Final against Sevilla that was not given.

It was fairly similar to the incident seen in this evening’s EURO 2024 Round of 16 tie, when Marc Cucurella seemed to lean into the block on a Jamal Musiala strike to charge it down with his hand.

The tie was level then, but Spain went on to win it deep into extra time.

Italian media was outraged and drew comparisons with the Roma incident, noting repeatedly that “Mourinho was right” to hurl abuse at Taylor in the car park of the stadium after that Europa League Final.

Multiple refereeing pundits on Sky Sport Italia, RAI Sport and Tuttomercatoweb all confirm they would’ve given that as a penalty because Cucurella leaned in and dangled his arm to block the shot.

Taylor blasted by Italian media

“The handball is so obvious that the VAR should be sent home as punishment, not to mention Taylor, who is incredibly error-prone,” said Sky Sport Italia journalist Maurizio Compagnoni.

“The only doubt can be if there was a Fullkrug offside or handball earlier in the move, otherwise it is inexplicable. The penalty Taylor didn’t give to Roma a year ago in the Europa League was already shocking, but this error was even worse.

“Taylor is an embarrassing referee. Evidently he has a concentration problem, which is inadmissible for a referee. If there was no offside first, then we are at the level of scandal seen in Bayern Munich-Fiorentina in 2010, when Miroslav Klose’s goal was ruled out for an impossible offside.

“This is the kind of error that will make it into the history of European and World football.”

Former referee and Sky Sport Italia pundit Gianpaolo Calvarese agreed that this was an error from Taylor.

“The gesture from Cucurella is evident, with his movement he tries to intercept the ball with an arm outside of the silhouette. Just look at the image and how close the right arm is to his body compared to the left.”

Some on Twitter even joked that Taylor Swift would’ve done a better job refereeing than Anthony Taylor.

The referee was also criticised for some bizarre handing out of yellow cards seemingly at random.