Tuesday night’s Italian Derby between Juventus and Inter in the Itaian Cup semi-finals ended in a 1-1 draw, but neither the result nor the performance of the two teams attracted the attention of the media and the football public in the country.
All the leading sports publications highlighted the ugly scenes on the pitch in the last seconds of the match, when as many as three red cards were handed out. It all started with Romelu Lukaku’s equalizing goal from a penalty at the very end of the match. The Belgian decided to celebrate his goal with an eloquent gesture of silence towards the home crowd before his tirade with the fans continued. For this reason, the referee showed him a second yellow and red card respectively. It turned out that the striker’s reaction was in response to racist abuse from supporters during the match.
However, this was only the beginning of the tension in the final moments of the match. While some of the Inter players were arguing with Davide Massa for sending off his team-mate, Juan Cuadrado went to demand an account from Lukaku, who pushed him away. The Colombian did not oblige him and pushed him in turn. The referee saw this and immediately showed the Juventus player a yellow card.
FT Juventus 1-1 Inter
Big brawl at the end of the match pic.twitter.com/UnNobLMioQ
— Italian Football News ?? (@footitalia1) April 4, 2023
However, there were further clashes between the footballers, after seconds later it was Cuadrado who argued with Samir Handanovic, and subsequently footage emerged that the South American even took the liberty of hitting the opposing goalkeeper. So the referee showed him a red card, doing the same to Handanović.