Italy U21 coach slams refereeing errors after they were denied a late equaliser in loss to France

This is the moment Italy’s Under-21 side were denied a stoppage-time equaliser against France to leave UEFA chiefs squirming.

Raoul Bellanova’s late header clearly went in off the post, but with no goal-line technology in use, there was no way to correct the error of Dutch referee Allard Lindhout and his linesman.

To add insult to injury, France defender Castello Lukeba handled the ball in trying to keep it out of the net – and got away with it because VAR was not being deployed either. 

Italy lost 2-1 and must now win their next game against Switzerland to have a chance of reaching the knockout stages.

‘I struggle to talk about the game because it shouldn’t be possible to have a refereeing performance like this,’ said Italy coach Paolo Nicolato. 

Italy were dealt a tough blow during their 2-1 defeat by France with several refereeing decisions costing them the game 

Italian head coach Paolo Nicolato (pictured) hit out at the decisions made by the referee claiming they ‘should not be possible’

Referee Allard Lindhout (pictured) was criticised by the Italy coach for the ‘way in which these incidents were handled’ while he also claimed his side were ‘unlucky’

‘Certain incidents had too much influence on the game and we were unlucky with the way these incidents were handled.’

In Italy’s main sports outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport, journalist Luigi Garlando wrote: ‘All of a sudden, we are back in the Middle Ages. In the age of artificial intelligence and chatbots that can write novels, football goes back to an ancient era, made up of huge errors and witch hunts.

‘Why? Where is the logic? It would be like suddenly asking the players to use wooden rackets at Wimbledon next month. 

‘Do we go back to the age of steam trains and chimney sweeps? Is this what we call progress?

Raoul Bellanova’s last-gasp header clearly went over the line but the equaliser wasn’t given  

Bradley Barcola (pictured) scored France’s second goal to secure the 2-1 win on Thursday

Pietro Pellegri (pictured) rose high to score a very well taken header for Italy to level the scores at 1-1 

‘If UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and the decision-makers at UEFA used the same energy to preserve the quality of football and the sporting spectacle that they did to fight the Super League and defend their own income, we would not be living in the past.’

A UEFA spokesperson said: ‘The implementation of VAR in European competitions is a big undertaking that UEFA started some years ago. It is submitted to significant technical, operational and logistical constraints.

‘UEFA has a staggered rolling plan aimed at gradually covering the vast majority of matches starting with men’s and women’s club and national team competitions.

‘UEFA is planning to implement VAR in the knock-out rounds of the current U21 tournament.’