Genoa Fury as De Bruyne's Goal Sparks VAR Controversy

Genoa walked off the Stadio Luigi Ferraris pitch beaten 2-0 by Napoli – and convinced they had seen this movie before.

The score was still goalless when the flashpoint arrived. A loose ball dropped in the Genoa box, Johan Vasquez stepped across Kevin De Bruyne to shield it, and the two came together. Vasquez went down under a nudge from behind. De Bruyne stayed up, took a touch, and from seven yards out buried the finish.

Referee Marco Di Bello had a clear view. He even raised the whistle to his lips. Then he lowered it again as De Bruyne struck and Napoli celebrated.

VAR checked the incident and did not call Di Bello to the monitor, judging there was no “clear and obvious” error. The goal stood. The temperature in Marassi rose.

The pressure finally told on Genoa again a few minutes later. De Bruyne slipped a neat pass into Antonio Vergara, who doubled Napoli’s lead and effectively killed the contest. On the opening day of the Serie A season, Napoli were clinical. Genoa were incandescent.

Lopez: “All of Italy saw what happened”

Chief of Football Diego Lopez did not bother to disguise his anger when he spoke to Sky Sport Italia and DAZN Italia after the game.

“All of Italy saw what happened today,” he said. “This referee was also in the VAR booth last season in the game against Napoli, so naturally when we heard he had been assigned to this match, we were worried.

“Last season it was 2-2 until the last minute and Napoli were awarded a penalty. He was also in Roma-Genoa, where our goalkeeper was hit in the face during a goal. Both times, the referees later acknowledged these were errors in Open VAR.”

Open VAR, DAZN’s weekly programme, has become the public forum where the referees’ association breaks down key incidents from the latest Serie A round, explaining decisions and, crucially for Genoa, admitting when they got them wrong.

That history framed every second of tonight’s controversy for the home side.

“Fortunately, there are cameras, so all of Italy saw that there was a clear push on Vasquez to create the opportunity for Napoli to score,” Lopez continued. “The referee saw it and decided not to blow his whistle, then the referee decided not to view it again.

“We tried to calm the players, because they knew Genoa had already suffered two recognised errors at the hands of this referee. We know that officials are human and can make mistakes, but all of Italy saw what happened today.”

A familiar VAR fault line

The De Bruyne–Vasquez duel instantly split opinion across Italy’s television studios. One camp saw a foul: a shove that knocked a defender off balance and opened the goal up for De Bruyne. The other saw a defender trying to buy a whistle, stepping across the forward and inviting contact instead of playing the ball.

That divide goes to the heart of the latest refereeing directive. Officials had underlined before the season that VAR should step in only for clear and obvious errors. In Genoa’s eyes, this was exactly that. In the referee’s eyes, and in the VAR booth, it was a coming-together that did not cross that threshold.

So the decision stayed with Di Bello. He let the game flow. De Bruyne scored. Napoli left with three points and two goals, one scored and one created by their Belgian star.

Genoa left with a sense of déjà vu and a burning question: how many times can the same referee sit at the centre of their biggest grievances before someone in Serie A takes a harder look?