Venezia feels robbed after Tuesday evening’s league match against Salernitana. Halfway through the second half, at 1-1, Ethan Ampadu received a direct red card on Tuesday evening after he took the ball from Franck Ribéry with a sliding tackle. There didn’t even seem to be a violation, but despite the intervention of the video referee, referee Marco Di Bello stood by his decision. In stoppage time, Salernitana exploited the numerical superiority: 1-2.
The day after the match, Venezia shares a video of the alleged violation via social media. The club does not add any text: the images speak for themselves, Venezia believes. Chelsea mercenary Ampadu, who came on as a substitute, executed a seemingly perfect tackle, after which Ribéry lost the ball and went to the grass. The Salernitana star gave the impression of being injured, although he ‘just’ finished the game. The video referee advised Di Bello to view the footage. He did, but the decision stood.
— Venezia FC (@VeneziaFC_EN) October 27, 2021
In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Andrea Schiavone scored the winning goal for the visitors. Venezia had taken the lead in the first half through Mattia Aramu; after an hour Federico Bonazzoli made it 1-1. Then Ridgeciano Haps entered the lines at Venezia, Ampadu received his red card. and Salernitana scored again. The PhD student recorded the second victory of the season and is in nineteenth place with seven points from ten matches. Venezia has collected eight points and is sixteenth. The bottom three clubs will be relegated to Serie B after the season.
“We did well in the first half, but then the referee became the worst man on the field,” Venezia coach Paolo Zanetti mourned afterwards. “He ruined the game. We could have played better, but the referee has had a chance to look at the footage again. Important games are ruined because of this. You don’t expect this in Serie A. We have to anyway fight to stay in the league, but we want to control that, we don’t want decisions like this to determine our fate.”