A whistle already in the mouth, ready to make a decision: according to Tiziano Pieri, this is the origin of the Abraham-penalty Roma goal case that brought referee Daniele Orsato back to the center of the controversy.
According to the former international director, now Rai commentator, the advantage over the penalty exists but the dynamics of Orsato's behavior were decisive: if Orsato had had the whistle in his hand, as usual, and not in his mouth, there would have been time for evaluate with more coldness.
And maybe even to appeal to the Var.
"My reading", says Pieri - who points out how the advantage can also be applied in the case of a penalty - is that "Orsato's evaluation on the first contact Abraham-Danilo makes him carry the whistle in his mouth. At that point, on the second. contact, which is a solar penalty kick, he whistles: unfortunately everything that follows is also the result of bad luck ". If, on the other hand, "he had had the whistle in his hand on the Szczesny-Mkhitaryan contact, he certainly wouldn't have technically had time to whistle the penalty before Abraham scored". "It is true - adds Pieri - that the best is always expected from an expert and good referee like Orsato. The best would have been to whistle a moment late.But his instinct leads him to always be very peremptory in his decisions, both technical and disciplinary. And today with the Var perhaps there is a need for a change for all these technologies that can take over ".
According to Pieri "for sure what Orsato communicated to Cristante, if it is true that he said that you cannot give an advantage, it does not correspond to the truth. We have seen other cases ... Most likely he wanted to express a different concept at that time" .
So Orsato should have applied the advantage and let Abraham score, then "the Var would have analyzed the action that led to the goal and if he had glimpsed the voluntariness and punishment of the foul in Mkhitaryan's touch he would have advised the referee to review the touch of the hand and eventually to award the penalty kick ".
If, on the other hand, the touch was considered the result of a fall "it would never have been considered foul".
