Pulisic goal and Cheddira penalty appeal: Open VAR delivers verdict on Milan-Sassuolo

AC Milan should have had a third goal during their 2-2 draw against Sassuolo, according to the assessments of Open VAR.

Milan once again dropped points at home against a newly-promoted side on Sunday. The away side went in front early on through Ismael Kone, but then a brace from Davide Bartesaghi turned the game on its head as he scored a goal either side of the break.

The drama wasn’t done though as Armand Lauriente came off the bench to level inside the final 20 minutes and the points were shared. It was yet another frustrating afternoon for Milan, after previously failing to beat Cremonese, Parma and Pisa.

Open VAR verdict

Andrea De Marco – the head of institutional relations for CAN A and B – commented on the DAZN show Open VAR about the penalty requested by Sassuolo at the end of the match against Milan for an alleged foul by Pavlovic on Cheddira.

“The referee on the pitch did well to assess the incident and then those in the VAR room did well to not call it out,” he said (via MilanNews).

“From the images you can clearly see that Pavlovic continues his run in a linear fashion, while the Sassuolo player doesn’t try to protect the ball, but extends his leg to make contact with the opponent. Therefore, it was the correct decision not to award the penalty.”

Photos by AC Milan and Errori Arbitrali

The referee Crezzini, however, did make an error in disallowing Pulisic’s goal because Loftus-Cheek had not committed any foul on the Sassuolo player.

“The referee called a foul. Loftus-Cheek placed his hands on the Sassuolo player’s back, but the intensity of the foul must be assessed,” De Marco added.

“VAR cannot intervene. But given the guidelines we’ve established this year, this cannot be considered a foul, so the goal should have been validated.”