Lazio Winger Reveals Referee’s Explanation on Controversial Penalty Incident vs Ludogorets

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The Laziali

·29 November 2024

Lazio Winger Reveals Referee’s Explanation on Controversial Penalty Incident vs Ludogorets

Gustav Isaksen reveals how the referee explained himself after denying Lazio what seemed to be a clear penalty kick in the Europa League contest against Ludogorets which ended in a goalless draw.

The Controversial Episode

Following a goalless first half, Marco Baroni rang the changes at halftime, and it included replacing the disappointing Loum Tchaouna with Isaksen who almost gave the Stadio Olimpico crowd something to cheer about. The Dane was clipped inside Ludogorets’ box by Erick Marcus, but match official Duje Strukan was unstirred.

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Gustav Isaksen Reveals Referee’s Explanation

The VAR then summoned the Croatian referee for an on-field review. After taking a long look from various angles, the stubborn Strukan stayed firm on his original call, much to the dismay of the Laziali elsewhere. In his post-match interview (via La Lazio Siamo Noi), Isaksen reveals that the referee felt the contact was too light to warrant a spot-kick.

I felt the contact. For me it’s a penalty but the referee told me that the touch was too light. Usually, when the referee reviews the footage on the monitor, he awards the penalty. But this time, it wasn’t the case, so I was surprised.

Happy With Top Spot

Nevertheless, the Denmark international is pleased to maintain the top spot in the Europa League table, while looking forward to Parma’s clash on Sunday.

There is frustration but we also have to see the overall performance. We are happy to sit in first place but obviously we wanted to win this match. We were the better side today, but we can’t win all the games. Now we’re thinking about Parma. We have many difficult games awaiting us and we’re looking forward to them. We’re playing at a very high level at the moment, we feel good and we’re ready to compete with the strongest teams.