The second Derby d’Italia of the 2025-26 season basically ended in the 42nd minute on Sunday.
You can look at all the fireworks that happened after that and disagree with the first sentence that I just wrote, but that’s what happened. Why? Because Federico La Penna, a Serie A referee who is far from the best that this once-great crew of match officials in Italy has to offer, made himself the star of the show.
It wasn’t for any sort of great call.
It was the opposite of that.
Juventus lost 3-2 to league leaders Inter Milan at San Siro on Saturday night. The score feels like a secondary piece to the puzzle considering just how much things turned on a dime when La Penna showed Pierre Kalulu a second yellow card for something…