Cristian Chivu left to rue VAR decision as Liverpool end Inter Milan’s 18-match unbeaten run in Europe

Cristian Chivu had warned his Inter Milan side to be ready for Liverpool’s intensity; what he could not have anticipated was the intensity of the video assistant referee.

Lautaro Martínez was in the vanguard of Italian protests at the final whistle as Inter officials made a beeline for referee Felix Zwayer, demanding to know why the visitors had been awarded the 88th-minute penalty from which Dominik Szoboszlai scored the only goal of a hard-fought Champions League encounter.

Inter’s assistant coach, Aleksandar Kolarov, was shown a yellow card in the brief mêlée that ensued and Chivu admitted that, like the rest of his backroom staff, he was nonplussed by Zwayer’s decision, following a VAR intervention, to award a spot kick he had initially denied for Alessandro Bastoni’s tug on Florian Wirtz’s shirt. 

Cristian Chivu: VAR failed to understand ‘dynamics of the game’

“I rarely comment on refereeing decisions,” said Chivu after Liverpool’s Salah-less 1-0 win. “I talk about education and what we ought to be teaching people, especially in the Champions League. The referee was in an excellent position to view the whole incident, and he decided it did not warrant a penalty.

“When VAR intervenes, it has to understand the dynamics of the game. We must accept the decisions and learn to combat injustice, be more wary of these things, and try to focus on the good things that we can do.”

Groundhog day for Cristian Chivu: VAR strikes again

Following Inter’s 2-1 defeat to Atlético Madrid last time out, which also culminated with a late opposition winner, it was the second successive European game from which the Nerazzurri came away feeling hard done by. For Bastoni’s foul against Liverpool, read VAR’s decision to let Atlético striker Julián Alvarez’s opener at the Metropilitano Stadium stand despite an apparent handball by Alex Baena in the build-up.

“It’s the second in the last two Champions League games, and we end up empty-handed again,” said Chivu.

While his ire was understandable, the Romanian overlooked the fact that Zwayer’s decision to chalk off a first-half goal from Ibrahima Konaté, this time for an alleged handball by Hugo Ekitiké, looked harsh in the extreme. It was also debatable whether Martínez should have still have been on the pitch to remonstrate with Zwayer at the end, given the Argentinian’s reckless early challenge on Andy Robertson.

Chivu rues injuries that left Inter ‘running short on energy’

Chivu, who was bolstered by Manuel Akanji’s swift recovery from influenza, was perhaps on firmer ground when he argued for the influence of early injuries to midfielder Hakan Çalhanoğlu and centre-back Francesco Acerbi as a factor in the outcome.

The substitutions that followed left Chivu with only one window remaining to make changes, and the possibility of further injuries meant it was not until seven minutes from time that the final raft of reinforcements arrived in the shape of Petar Sučić, Ange-Yoan Bonny and Carlos Augusto. It proved too little, too late for Inter.

“After being forced into making two substitutions, in the second half we couldn’t make more changes [immediately] and were running short on energy,” Chivu added.

“[Ryan] Gravenberch kept leaving room [and] we started to find those passing channels during the final 20 minutes of the first half. But once the energy levels dropped, we sat a bit too deep.”

The result, which ended Milan’s 18-match unbeaten run at home in Europe dating back to September 2022, leaves Chivu’s side fifth in the league phase standings ahead of Wednesday night’s fixtures.