La Gazzetta dello Sport analyses the refereeing decisions from the Milan - Atalanta game, which took place at San Siro and ended 2-0 for the Diavolo. Referee Maurizio Mariani received a rating of 6.5 from the newspaper for directing the game "with decision-making, positioning, and correct choices in a match without any particular problems or criticisms.
At the 25th minute, Milan took the lead. According to the Italian newspaper in this morning's print edition everything developed in a regular manner, including the aerial contact between Davide Zappacosta and Olivier Giroud, who assisted Theo Hernández's volley that resulted in Juan Musso's own goal.
At the 27th minute, the first key moment of the game occurred. Rafael Leão steals the ball from Rafael Tolói, who misses the ball and falls to the ground, stopping the play with his arm. The Milan players, Leão receives a deserved yellow card for protests, as he was already warned, request a red card for DOGSO (denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity), but there are two missing elements. This is because the distance from the goal is considerable, and Giorgio Scalvini is on a diagonal recovery trajectory. Mariani gives a fair yellow card to the Atalanta defender.
The referee also made a good call five minutes later in the area: it was Leão who touched Joakin Maehle's left foot (who was in the lead), not the other way around. Finally, Junior Messias' 2-0 goal, assisted by the Portuguese player, was legitimate: the Brazilian was in the correct position with no offside call.
