As after every Milan match, the anti-Milan crowd, wearing the wrong colors of the city, analyzes the 90 minutes played by the Rossoneri frame by frame, searching for any pretext to create controversy or tension.
Today it was Mike Maignan’s turn, accused of having "insulted" the referee. But the footage available, published by DAZN France’s accounts, shows something completely different. In the clip released by the French streaming service, there are two clearly distinct situations: the first is captured by the camera on the referee’s earpiece. It is perfectly visible that Maignan, as captain and therefore authorized to speak with the match official, goes to Mariani after the penalty awarded to Genoa to speak: the Frenchman says he is the captain and therefore must speak to him. In response, amid the crowding and confusion of the moment, the referee issues him a yellow card. The VAR then confirms the penalty, it is taken, Stanciu misses, and the match resumes for about thirty seconds.
The second clip shown by DAZN France is from several minutes later. The match is over, there is some crowding in the middle of the field, and Adrien Rabiot is seen escorting Mike Maignan off the pitch, at which point Maignan mutters under his breath a "son of a ....." in French. But from the footage now available, the same footage everyone is relying on for the usual sanctimonious outrage, there is no evidence that Milan’s captain directed it at the referee, opponents, or anyone else, as relayed via Milannews.it.
It remains, however, always very "entertaining" how after every match, thanks to the many cameras and microphones placed at pitchside, both audio and lip-reading are available for every incident. When it mattered most, when there was something truly serious to verify, chance has it that the famous audio does not exist, writes Milan News.
