Massa, chosen by the designer for Napoli-Lecce, was not going through a happy moment. He had returned discreetly (albeit with some errors) in Empoli-Turin, fresh from a bad period (uncertain in the Italian Cup in Juve-Lazio after two serious errors in Real-Leipzig of the Champions League and Fiorentina-Roma and he had not convinced either in Sassuolo-Milan, nor in Lazio-Verona two weeks ago when he had sparked protests from the Biancocelesti, however redeeming himself in the last outing on May 14th in Lecce-Udinese. Let’s see how the Ligurian whistle fared yesterday at “Maradona”.
Click here to see the highlights of Empoli-Roma
Massa’s precedents with Empoli and Rome
Massa’s history with Roma spoke of a positive balance, with 10 wins, 12 draws and 6 defeats in total. This season he had refereed the Capitoline team on two occasions, both away: the 2-2 in Florence and the 0-0 in the first leg derby. The balance sheet with him for Empoli instead read 7 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats, with only one direct match this season: the 3-2 home win for the Tuscans against Torino.
The referee booked five players
Assisted by assistants Tegoni and L.Rossi, with Rapuano fourth man, Aureliano al Var and Abisso all’AVar, the referee booked five players, one of which was from De Rossi’s team: Gyasi, Destro, Marin, Niang (E), Joao Costa (R)
Empoli-Roma, the cases from slow motion
These are the dubious episodes. . Two minutes and a yellow card immediately arrives for Gyasi. the Empoli winger extends his arm and hits Angeliño. Severe penalty after just 180 seconds. After the Tuscans’ lead goal with Cancellieri, Cristante equalized in the 19th minute. Check by the VAR and after a long review the goal, initially validated, was revoked due to the offside of the Giallorossi number 4. In the 34th minute yellow for Destro: late intervention against Zalewski and warning for the former Roma player. In the 81st minute, yellow for Marin who stops Dybala on the restart. In the 84th minute El Shaarawy scored, but was largely in an offside position on the pass from behind. In the 86th minute Azmoun leaps past Caprile and goes down without contact: the Iranian misses the yellow for simulation. Nervousness on the pitch for the last minutes of the game and in the 90th minute Joao Costa gets a yellow card after a foul on Marin stops Empoli’s restart: the right yellow card which then also gets Niang. Shortly afterwards Niang himself commits a hard foul on Ndicka: he should have received a second yellow card and expulsion in Empoli-Roma.
