Sabatini on Inter-Napoli: the penalty is there but Barella should have continued

The missed penalty awarded to Inter for Lobotka‘s handball in the match against Napoli continues to spark debate. In the episode of Pressing, the discussion involved Sabatini and Biasin, who had different views on how the incident was handled and its implications ahead of European commitments.

According to Sabatini, the incident was a clear penalty, but Barella should have handled the situation differently: “It’s a penalty and if you go to Madrid meet Barella, but give him some advice from me, so he refuses it. Since the ball remains in Barella’s possession, he should continue the play.” The journalist reiterated the nature of the foul, but specified that the Nerazzurri midfielder, instead of protesting, should have shot and continued the action.

Biasin responded by contesting the idea of assigning responsibility to the player: “Yes, perfect, but I don’t think this is the time to blame Barella. No, let’s blame Barella.” The journalist then shifted the focus to the broader issue related to the referee’s criteria: “It seems to me that we are taking some risks with this kind of standard. Now, at this point, handball no longer exists.”

Biasin’s warning concerns European competitions in particular: “I think it’s all very dangerous because we hide certain situations behind the phrase ‘let’s use the European standard.’ But look, in Europe this is a penalty, I mean, it’s not like in Europe they don’t call a penalty. So be careful, because now we’re going to the Champions League and these are penalties, fouls, when you bring down a player they call the foul.”