Sports

By Y.C. Lim

“Krasic is hammered throughout every game. I don’t know if there was a foul or not, but certainly he is not the type of lad to do this on purpose. I do not expect a ban for him. Do Juve depend on the performances of Krasic? Absolutely not.” – Juventus boss Gigi del Neri.

“Milos was very down, he is a sensitive lad and he knows he made a mistake. But we missed so there’s no damage.” – Juve midfielder Alberto Aquilani.

With daily comparisons as the next Pavel Nedved ever since he arrived in Turin, the bar was always going to be high for Serb winger Milos Krasic at Juventus following his mega-money transfer from CSKA Moscow in summer. And until last weekend’s Serie A match Krasic appeared to be dealing with things admirably as week on week his glittering performances for the Bianconeri drew rave reviews.

But one incident has now undermined much of the good work. Krasic was guilty of cheating against Bologna with a terrible dive that earned the Old Lady a penalty.



Despite Del Neri’s attempts at defusing the situation, the video evidence gave a distinctively different picture. Ten minutes before halftime the Juventus winger dived to win a penalty in Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Bologna. His teammates have since accepted the crime was committed, and even if they hadn’t the replay evidence was pretty clear anyway. There was no contact at all from defender Daniele Portanova and no slip.

Justice was done for Bologna when Vincenzo Iaquinta fluffed the spot-kick. But if he had scored the goal would have stood and there is nothing in soccer’s rules to reverse it.

According to Italian reports, Krasic could face a ban from Serie A in the next couple of days because of Italian federation rules allowing video evidence to be used to review referees’ decisions.