Some will call it cheating, will evoke a deplorable anti-gambling attitude… Others, however, will say that it is a gesture full of malice. A undoubtedly winning move.
Strahinja Pavlovic, the Serbian defender of AC Milan, is indeed perhaps at the origin of Nicolae Stanciu’s huge penalty miss at the very end of the match, Thursday, between the Rossoneri and Genoa during the 19th day of Serie A, the Italian football championship. A duel which ended in total confusion and with a score of 1 to 1.
While his Milanese partners, Mike Maignan first, sharply attacked the referee of the match, guilty according to them of having whistled a non-existent penalty in the 7th minute of added time of the match, Strahinja Pavlovic headed towards the penalty spot… to degrade him.
According to the Italian media Gazzetta, the Serb literally destroyed the ground with four violent kicks with his left foot and two with his right. Still according to the media, the player was later warned for this gesture by the referee and received a yellow card. The surreal scene was also captured by DAZN cameras.
In the end, Pavlovic will not regret his act since Genoa’s Romanian striker Nicolae Stanciu completely missed his shot on goal and saw the ball fly into the stands. A failure perhaps due to a lack of support on the ground at the time of the strike…
A gesture which also recalls that made by Kylian Mbappé during the qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup last November against Ukraine. While the referee had whistled a penalty in favor of the Ukrainians, the captain of the Blues approached the penalty spot to discreetly scratch it with his crampons.
“In fact, there was no one around the penalty spot and I, as I take a lot of penalties, I know roughly the footing zones,” said the Blues scorer, all smiles at the TF1 microphone after the match. If he (the Ukrainian shooter) could have slipped a little, we take it. But there was no penalty. It’s a rat’s move. Before talking to Mike (Maignan)I already wanted to put him in the best possible position. It doesn’t have to be done again, but these are little rat gestures as they say (laughs). »
