Bremer: ‘Letter of the law says it’s a penalty, Juventus must accept it’

Gleison Bremer admits ‘it is a penalty by the letter of the law and we must accept it’ after a controversial spot-kick sparked Atalanta’s 3-0 Coppa Italia win over Juventus.

The Bianconeri had started the quarter-final stronger in Bergamo and hit the crossbar with Francisco Conceicao, but the game changed after 25 minutes.

Even Ederson had not appealed when his cross was deflected off Bremer into the arms of Mattia Perin, but VAR spotted that it had hit the defender’s hand, and referee Michael Fabbri awarded a penalty following the On-Field Review.

“It is honestly difficult to talk about this, because it is a penalty by the letter of the law,” Bremer told Sport Mediaset.

“As a defender, I would naturally say it isn’t a penalty, but the referee awarded it and we must accept it. This is a decision that changes the game, but we can’t do anything about that.

“After all, it was in the first half, we had an hour left to turn the match around.”

Former referee Graziano Cesari in the studio noted that the replay showed Bremer’s hand never moved towards the ball, but was in a fairly natural position for someone running.

He even called this kind of penalty ‘anti-football,’ but Bremer was more focused on the rest of the Juventus performance.

They failed to convert any of their scoring opportunities, while Atalanta were clinical in adding two more goals through Kamaldeen Sulemana and Mario Pasalic late on.

“It happened against Cagliari and Lecce too, so we have to improve on taking our chances,” insisted the Brazilian.

“We have just started this new era with the coach, so we are on the right track, even if we made mistakes today. We also must apologise to the fans, because a 3-0 result is too much, but we’ve got to get right back on track from the next game.”

Atalanta go on to face either Bologna or Lazio in the Coppa Italia semi-final.