The referee initially missed Joao Mario`s handball, was corrected by VAR but then misidentified the player. Orban, Zanetti`s striker, intentionally elbowed Tudor`s defender Gatti, receiving only a yellow card, with VAR failing to intervene.
The first half of the match at the Bentegodi stadium was characterized by several contentious refereeing decisions. Initially, Referee Rapuano issued a yellow card only to Gatti following an argument with Bradaric, while completely overlooking a handball by Joao Mario. Although partly obscured by an opponent, Joao Mario`s arm clearly expanded his body`s silhouette. After a VAR review, prompted by Aureliano (with Massa as AVAR), Rapuano ultimately awarded the penalty.
The confusion continued when the referee, utilizing a recently introduced public announcement system, erroneously stated that the “obvious” handball was committed by player number 15 (Kalulu), instead of the actual culprit, number 25 (Joao Mario). Orban then successfully converted the penalty, bringing the score to 1-1 in the 44th minute. Even more critically, towards the end of the half, Rapuano only penalized Orban with a yellow card for a blatant elbow strike on Gatti. Replays unequivocally showed the striker deliberately targeting his opponent rather than the ball during a long clearance. VAR, once again, failed to intervene on this significant incident. Ironically, the protests from Hellas Verona`s sporting director Sogliano led to him receiving a red card instead.
