NAPOLI’S Serie A title defence suffered its first setback of the season with defeat to AC Milan last night in a crunch early season clash.
And Scotland hero Scott McTominay was at the centre of the drama.
Champions Napoli had won all four of their opening league matches prior to heading to the San Siro.
But their unbeaten start came to an end with Milan emerging victorious 2-1 in a pulsating clash.
Goals from Alexis Saelemaekers and Christian Pulisic had Massimiliano Allegri‘s side looking comfortable at 2-0 with only 31 minutes played.
Napoli hit back after an hour through a Kevin de Bruyne penalty, awarded after Pervis Estupinan had hauled down Giovanni di Lorenzo and was sent-off in the process.
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But despite playing more than half an hour with ten men, Milan held on to take over at the top of the Serie A table.
While Napoli were awarded that spot-kick in the second half, there was controversy surrounding another penalty incident during the first 45.
Just a few minutes after Pulisic had made it 2-0, Scott McTominay went down in the box under a challenge from Fikayo Tomori.
The referee was right on the scene and was unmoved.
Scotland star McTominay got to the ball first and was adamant he was subsequently fouled by England international Tomori.
There was a clear look of shock on his face when he realised the referee was not pointing to the spot.
While there certainly did appear to be some contact from Tomori, the officials clearly didn’t feel it was enough.
Neither did the Milan players, who quickly surrounded the grounded McTominay and demand he get to his feet.
VAR checked but didn’t intervene.
The decision has caused plenty of debate in the aftermath with many pundits split on whether it should have been a penalty or not.
Former Serie A referee Luca Marelli told DAZN that the decision not to point to the spot “was influenced by the intensity of the contact.”
He said that while there was contact, on-field referee Daniele Chiffi deemed it “to be insufficient” enough to award a penalty.
Marelli did concede, however, that had the referee given the penalty there and then, then VAR would likely have NOT intervened to overturn it either, deeming it to ultimately be the referee’s call.
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