Many Spaniards were gutted to see their captain Jordi Alba being mocked by the Italian counterpart, the experienced Giorgio Chiellini, during the preparations for the penalty shoot-out.Chiellini and Alba joined German referee Felix Brych for the coin toss before the penalties, with Chiellini appearing to confuse matters by contesting the outcome and giving Alba a bearhug and a gentle slap.But it now emerges that while there might have been a bit of brinksmanship in Chiellini’s actions, the exchange was caused by a needlessly confusing coin toss.According to Sportsmail, the referee Brych had a coin that does not have a heads and tails on each side, but a blue and red. Blue represented Spain and red was for Italy. Still thinking about how Giorgio Chiellini was with Jordi Alba before the penalty shootout 😂 pic.twitter.com/fqYtHbPXNj— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 7, 2021 Next, the referee oversees not one but two coin tosses. One to establish which end the penalties are taken at, and another to decide who picks whether they go first or second.For the first toss, the players don’t choose which colour of the coin they have – that is down to the referee. So Brych tossed the coin and it landed on red, which he had assigned to Italy.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Alba thought he had won as Spain often play in red and Italy play in blue but the Italian’s skipper correctly knew he had actually got it, and the penalties would be taken at Italy’s end of the stadium.As per the Italian publication Corriere della Sera, Chiellini jokingly called Alba a ‘liar’ as he claimed Spain had won the toss.Chiellini then won the second toss and decided Italy will shoot first before giving Alba a bearhug and appearing to joke around with him about the, understandable, confusion.
