Matthijs De Ligt's Defending To Give Away Penalty Against Inter Was Awful


Matthijs de Ligt's time at Juventus hasn't started in perfect fashion and the young centre back was once again at fault for a goal against Inter on Sunday.

Last season De Ligt hit the headlines for all the right reasons for Ajax but this season, despite Juve now topping Serie A, it's generally been the opposite.

On Sunday the 20-year-old gave away a bizarre penalty when he decided to lead with his arm into a cross.

The referee immediately pointed to the spot and though it was the defender who asked for him to look at VAR the replays only further proved the original decision was spot on.

Some argued on social media that the player was merely trying to protect himself from the Inter forward's high foot but his arm was out well in advance of any collision even looking likely.

Lautaro Martinez scored from the resulting spot kick to make it 1-1, after Paulo Dybala's excellent strike had pup the Italian champions ahead.

De Ligt hadn't had time to recover from his penalty conceding error when Romelu Lukaku made a fool of him with a brilliant nutmeg inside his own half before the half hour mark.

Earlier in the season the former Ajax player had been at fault for a couple of Napoli's goals as they came back from 3-0 down against the Old Lady to level at 3-3, only for Kalidou Koulibaly to score an own goal to gift Maurizio Sarri's side all three points.

Once again despite De Ligt's mistakes it was Juventus who won all three points. Cristiano Ronaldo had a goal disallowed by VAR for offside in a very entertaining and frantic first half but it was Gonzalo Higuain who made the difference.

The former Real Madrid forward was the third Argentine striker on the scoresheet after coming off the bench and netting the winner in the 80th minute.

The loss was the second in the week for Antonio Conte's side coming up against a 'bigger' side and going toe-to-toe with them only to narrowly lose out late on, after the Champions League loss to Barcelona.

It was the Nerazzurri's first league loss of the season and took Juventus back above them in the table by one point going into the international break.

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