Mazzarri: Penalty call pivotal

Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri refused to blame a penalty decision against defender Salvatore Aronica for his side’s 3-0 loss to AC Milan, though he admitted it was a turning point.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic converted from the spot after Aronica was judged to have handled the ball inside the area, and the Swede’s second-half goal opened the floodgates as Milan extended their lead at the top of the Serie A to five points.Replays showed Milan were perhaps fortunate to win the spot kick, but Mazzarri did not blame the referee.”Until the penalty incident the game was balanced, then everything changed,” Mazzarri said.”Those penalties can be given. Sometimes they are and sometimes they are not. Tonight the referee decided to award it.””But I don’t want to talk about referees, especially as there were other dubious decisions made, like some offside calls, so I want to avoid talking about them.”A win would have drawn Napoli level on points with Milan at the top of the table, but instead they now trail the league leaders by six points.Mazzarri admitted his side were not at their best at the San Siro and credited Milan for denying his side a clear path to goal.”We wanted to try a few things in the second half, but we couldn’t manage it,” Mazzarri said, adding: “Milan are a phenomenal side and they stopped us from playing.””If possible, I would have liked to stop the game completely and got the side to just think about a few things for three minutes.”