The Belgium, who came into the match from the bench, scored a dying-minute equaliser for Inter Milan in the Copa Italia semi-final and celebrated his goal by silencing fans in the Curva Sud, leaving the environment tense.
It was gathered that the reason for such a celebration was because he was racially abused by some Juventus fans at the Allianz Stadium.
According to an editor of Football Italia, Lorenzo Bettoni, the 29-year-old started receiving insults after receiving a yellow card for a rough tackle on Federico Gatti. Since then, he became a target of some Juce fans who mostly insulted the Belgian forward by shouting ‘scemo’ – idiot in Italian – while others made monkey noises.
The editor noted that it wasn’t easy to immediately identify the racist remarks against Lukaku from Curva Sud because the distance between the press box at the Allianz Stadium is quite far from the area reserved for journalists.
He noted that insults were a little louder after the Belgian converted a late penalty, celebrating by silencing fans in the Curva Sud.
Lukaku did the same way during the international break when he scored three goals against Sweden for Belgium.
As many wondered why he was given a second yellow, things became clearer after videos started circulating on social media, showing some Juventus fans in the Curva Sud racially insulting Lukaku, even calling him ‘monkey.’ This was heard from the social media videos but not audible from the press box.
Meanwhile, the racist behavior didn’t come from the entirety of Juventus’ Curva, unlike in other Italian stadiums recently.
Reacting to the development, Juventus have promised to take action. They are ready to continue supporting the authorities, having done that with investigations when similar incidents have happened inside their arena.
All thanks to the CCTV inside the stadium, identifying those responsible should not be an issue, as they lcould be banned for life from attending any match at the Allianz Stadium
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