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 that he thought was worth of a red and sending Juventus down to 10 men. In actuality, it was pretty much the opposite of that when you went back and saw more and more replays, even though many of us didn’t even need to see a single replay to know that it wasn’t close to being worthy of what happened. Thanks to Alessandro Bastoni’s flop of all flops, begging for a card and then celebrating Kalulu getting sent off like it was a last-minute goal in the Champions League final, Juventus’ hopes of beating Inter for a second time this season went up in smoke in the 42nd minute.

Kalulu didn’t deserve to get sent off against Inter. Hell, he didn’t even deserve the first yellow card he was shown 10 minutes earlier. No matter what you think of the pass that Fabio Miretti attempted right before the “foul” Kalulu made on Bastoni — and yeah, it was a pretty bad pass attempt from the young Italian midfielder — those who actually think that’s a foul on Kalulu are just as wrong as La Penna was.

But this is the culture of football that Serie A (and other leagues around Europe) has created all by themselves. They reward this kind of behavior where you can trick the referee into thinking there is something wrong when, like Kalulu, there’s absolutely nothing. A 6-foot-3 center back who is nearly 200 pounds like Bastoni is should not be flopping around after minimal contact like he’s a fish fresh out of the water after getting hooked.

Even with it feeling like 12 against 10 for pretty much the entire second half, Juventus fought. They freakin’ fought until the very end. When it comes to the effort that Luciano Spalletti’s team put forward, you cannot fault them at all. They fought before Kalulu got sent off and were arguably the better side in the first half, and they certainly fought after going down to 10 men. Then they fought once Inter went ahead 2-1 on Francesco Pio Esposito’s latest reminder that he is the future of the Italian national team, if not a pretty good player to begin with in the present. Manuel Locatelli’s stunner seven minutes before second-half stoppage time felt like the reward for all of the battling that Juve did.

It was a reflection of this team, their manager and just how they were playing to get something out of it when there were so many things going against them between the refereeing blunders and the sheer volume on nonsense that Inter players were getting involved in.

A point felt totally like a win when Locatelli’s shot hit the back of the net. They deserved it for how much they stuck with it and fought through everything.

Then … it was all gone on the cusp of stoppage time.

That is not what Juventus deserved on this night. Far from it. Juventus deserved a point. I wholeheartedly believe they could have won this game if it was actually 11 against 11. Juve were going right up against the team that is the clear-cut favorite for the Scudetto this season and giving them a game.

That is before Kalulu got sent off, of course. Then everything changed — and not for the better.

Or maybe it’s just best if I let Romeo talk for me for a second here …

Refereeing mistakes going against Juventus. Refereeing mistakes benefiting Inter. I’m not one to really get into the whole world of conspiracy theories, but it really is hard to ignore how these things keep happening in football.

It’s not a one-off occurrence or anything close to it. These are things that keep happening.

And until something changes, then we can’t just keep brushing these things off as the new normal in this league.

Juventus lost a game. That happens. But this is a night that the football is far from being the main thing that should be talked about. That in of itself is unfortunate because the football is why we keep coming back win, lose or draw.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

Damien Comolli is 100% justified in his anger after this game.Giorgio Chiellini is 100% justified in his anger after this game.You are 100% justified in your anger after this game. Just as I am.These Serie A referees. It’s best if I don’t speak.Just kidding. Let’s let things fly. This is a case where it’s deserved.The current state of refereeing in Serie A is a joke. It’s obvious. The system is broken if they see whart has happened again this weekend and not try and fix this. It’s just completely ruining both the quality of the game and the enjoyment. You can’t sit here and watch Serie A and think it’s such an enjoyable league yet at the same time just brush off the routine errors that are made across the board.This is the perfect moment for Juventus, a club that has previously wanted to push Serie A forward rather than have it just retreat back into whatever you wanna describe it as now, to make a statement about where this game currently sits. And not just like a random press release over the next 24 hours that makes things look like you’re just trying to check something off the list. Actual change. Action. Make this be the example of why things are completely broken when it comes to refereeing and what needs to happen to make it better for every single club in Serie A, not just Juventus.Because I can tell you this, folks: I’ve been following this league for the better part of the last 25 years. And when you’re seeing refereeing at this level making consistent game-changing errors across the board, you’re in trouble. And the current leaders of the FIGC just aren’t cutting it. They’re too comfortable in their own, old Italian male ways. It’s time to make things better — and fast. Or else you’re just going to regress into the weeds more than you already have.Can we talk about the game? OK, yeah, let’s talk about the game itself because I’m tired of spending 1,000 or so words mostly on the refereeing. Here’s the first thing I wrote after kickoff ..Fouling Kenan Yildiz within the first five seconds. Screw these guys.Crap, that’s about the refereeing again … kinda. I hate it here. Somebody make it stop.It’s hard to rip Juventus’ effort at all in the second half, but I gotta say: the marking on Esposito’s goal was lacking a little something. Not totally sure what Locatelli was doing there.But hey, he went and scored a goal that nobody probably had him scoring a few minutes later. So there’s that. Bravo to you, capitano.On the whole, though, Juve’s defensive effort in the second half was great. Bremer was an absolute rock at the back. Lloyd Kelly made some great interceptions. Michele Di Gregorio shook off whatever happened to him on the Andrea Cambiaso own goal and make some absolutely fantastic saves. It’s hard to truly get upset about the two second-half goals from Inter when you consider what they were up against.Speaking of that own goal, this was another chapter in the Cambiaso Experience, huh? He scored against his own defense, then he scored on Inter’s defense with a nice little run at the back post to leave Luis Henrique completely bamboozled. He sure would be a good player if these kind of major mistakes even somewhat disappeared from his game. Instead, he just continues to have these mistakes centering around any sort of discussion about him right now.Could Di Gregorio have done better on the own goal? Yes, but at the same time, that’s a hard spot to be in when you’re just completely off-balance and then scrambling to recover. The sticking out of the wrong foot to try and stop the deflection off CambiasoLet’s just state it for the record: Di Gregorio couldn’t have done anything on Inter’s game-winning goal. Between the simple fact he was blocked by multiple players and then there’s a slight deflection, that’s just a no-win situation to be in as a goalkeeper — and his reaction to it said it all … on top of everything that had happened up until that point.Another two assists for Weston McKennie because that’s just what he does for Juventus. (He does other stuff, too, but he just doesn’t have bad games these days. He continues to remind us all why Juventus need to renew his contract ASAP and there’s no other alternative.)Pretty solid half of football from Emil Holm, huh?McKennie clattered into the back in the penalty area. No call. Sums it up right there.Jérémie Boga got brought down in the box and there wasn’t any sort of call. Sums it up right there.Bastoni deserved three yellow cards in the first half. He was actually shown one. Sums it up right there, too.In conclusion, I hate that this is the reason why Pierre Kalulu’s run of playing every single minute of every single game. He does not deserve this. Not by a long shot. He deserves rest by his and his manager’s choosing, not because of some idiotic refereeing decision.Pass the bourbon. I will not be toasting to Federico La Penna. He doesn’t deserve that kind of acknowledgement.