Gian Piero Gasperini said the Supercoppa played in Riyadh showed ‘Italy exporting a bad version of VAR’ after Atalanta’s 2-0 defeat to Inter, venting his anger at ‘absurd’ decisions.

The Final Four format of the tournament is again being played in Saudi Arabia and should be an opportunity to show the best of Italian football abroad.

However, Gasperini felt that it displayed the worst sides of the game in the Peninsula too, as Denzel Dumfries scored both goals with an Ederson effort disallowed.

“It is not easy to create chances against Inter, but the game changed with that absurd goal on a non-existent corner,” said Gasperini in his press conference.

“It was not a corner, Stefan de Vrij was offside and standing in front of the goalkeeper, plus there was a very obvious Dumfries foul on Giorgio Scalvini, pushing him with two hands.

“This was Italy exporting a bad version of VAR, one that spent seven minutes checking for a Charles De Ketelaere offside, but did not see any of these three clear situations.”

The Atalanta coach was criticised for his surprising choices in the starting XI, leaving De Ketelaere, Ademola Lookman and Ederson on the bench until after the opening goal.

“We did what we wanted to do,” insisted Gasperini.

“At times we fell into the Inter trap and lost the ball cheaply, but they are a great team and we closed the gap on them. I had to take this opportunity to give players a start, as Nicolò Zaniolo hadn’t started yet this season and Lazar Samardzic only a couple of times.

“We cannot always start De Ketelaere and Lookman in every game, that becomes a problem. The issue here is you always ask me why these players aren’t starting, then when I do play them you ask why the others aren’t playing. You cannot get out of this mentality.

“I played internationals, not youth players, not reserves. These are all members of the Atalanta squad. Raoul Bellanova did not play because he has a knee injury.”

Gasperini has lost his last seven consecutive matches against Inter coach Simone Inzaghi, so is there something about their style of football that clashes?

“The difficulty is that Inter have great players and are well-organised. We always play to win and it went badly in August with a 4-0 defeat, so in those situations you have to regroup, recognise the value of the opponent and try to be more competitive.”

Inter will now face the winners of Friday night’s other semi-final, Juventus-Milan, in the showdown on Monday January 6.

There is no match for third place, so Atalanta can return home from Riyadh.