Referee Davide Massa left Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri in agony following Partenopei’s disastrous 3-0 home defeat to Serie A leaders Inter. Simone Inzaghi’s side battered the reigning champions in their own backyard to record only their second win in 18 matches at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Despite a telling final score, Sunday’s fixture in southern Italy was anything but plain sailing for Inter. Napoli had several decent chances to open the scoring before Hakan Calhanoglu broke the deadlock with a phenomenal long-range strike just before the interval.
Napoli tried to force Massa to review the incident in the build-up as Lautaro Martinez allegedly clipped Stanislav Lobotka to the ground. However, the referee showed no interest in the home side’s protests, with VAR upholding his initial decision.
That wasn’t the only time Massa ruled in favor of Inter. At the start of the second half, Francesco Acerbi caught Victor Osimhen’s heel inside the box, only for the referee to wave play on without even considering double-checking the situation with VAR.
Devastated by dubious decisions made by Massa, Mazzarri refused to show up for the post-match conference. Instead, Napoli director Mauro Meluso was the one answering the questions.
“Mazzarri preferred not to come here, because we want him to be on the bench and therefore wanted to avoid him making certain comments that could get him into trouble,” the Napoli chief said, as quoted by Gianluca Di Marzio.
In addition to admitting his unhappiness with poor refereeing in the first half, Meluso couldn’t help but point to Massa’s choice not to give Napoli a penalty that could’ve changed the game.
“We are very unhappy and feel that we and our fans do not deserve this kind of treatment. It feels like the referee and VAR had an off day, which of course can happen to anyone.
“The first goal knocked the wind out of our sails and it had a foul in the build-up on Lobotka that was obvious. It warranted an immediate intervention from the referee, even without help from VAR, as it was so obvious.”
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