Fiorentina chief fumes after Cristiano Ronaldo penalties fire Juventus to victory

Fiorentina owner Rocco Commisso said he was “disgusted” by referee Fabrizio Pasqua after Juventus were awarded two penalties in a 3-0 win on Sunday.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored both spot-kicks before Matthijs de Ligt headed a late third goal to complete a convincing victory over Fiorentina at the Allianz Stadium.

The first penalty was given for a handball by German Pezzella shortly before half-time, with the second awarded for Rodrigo Bentancur being brought down by Federico Ceccherini.

Both were decided after VAR referrals, with Pasqua taking a close look before reaching his decisions.

The latter looked to be the more questionable call, with the first clear cut.

Commisso said: “I am disgusted. I believe that a team that has €350million of signings doesn’t need the referees. Juve are very strong, let the game be won on the field, not by the gifts that the referees give.

“It’s not fair for Italian football, these matches go all over the world, when they see this rubbish what do they think?”

REACTION | 

Coach Giuseppe Iachini #ForzaViola #JuveFiorentina pic.twitter.com/fnZbqlZkIx

— ACF Fiorentina English  (@ACFFiorentinaEN) February 2, 2020

Quoted widely in Italy, Commisso added: “Matches in Italy are decided by the referees, you can’t go on like this. With Genoa they didn’t give us penalties, with Inter they didn’t give us penalties, today they gave two penalties against us. Maybe the first one was there but the second certainly wasn’t.”

Commisso’s verdict was rejected by Pavel Nedved, the Juventus vice-president.

Nedved, the former Juventus playmaker, said: “I don’t have to answer to Commisso. I respect him, but too much is said about Juventus not winning on merit. We are fed up. We deserved to win. Let’s stop pulling up the referees.”