Furious Diego Simeone slams VAR penalty decision after controversial Real Madrid defeat

Atletico Madrid star Julian Alvarez saw his penalty cancelled by VAR midway through the shootout against rivals Real Madrid, having been adjudged to have touched the ball twice

Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone insists that Julian Alvarez’s penalty against Real Madrid shouldn’t have been disallowed.

Alvarez took Atletico’s second penalty in a dramatic shootout after his team beat their local rivals 1-0 in the second leg of their Champions League round-of-16 clash, making the scores 2-2 on aggregate. The ex-Manchester City star slipped while taking his shot but the ball still went high into the back of the net.

Before Real’s Federico Valverde could take the next penalty, though, a VAR check took place. Polish video assistant referee Tomasz Kwiatkowski ruled that Alvarez’s standing foot had touched the ball before his shot, resulting in the penalty going down as a miss.

That gave Carlo Ancelotti’s visiting side the advantage and they made it count to win the shootout 4-2. Simeone was skeptical of the decision, saying during his post-match press conference: “I’ve just seen the images, the referee says Julian touches the ball with his supporting leg, but the ball doesn’t move.

“That’s debatable, whether it was a goal or not. But I’m proud of my players, I’m honestly happy, because we competed in an exemplary way.”

The Argentine continued: “When Julian kicks [the penalty], the ball doesn’t even move a bit. I imagine that they called the VAR and saw that he touched it. I want to believe that they’ll have seen that he touched it.”

Simeone then told journalists who were in the room: “Raise your hand, anyone who saw Julian touch it twice. Who is going to raise their hand? Nobody has raised their hand.”

Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who used to play for Atletico under Simeone, accused them of ‘victimhood’. I felt that he touched the ball twice and I told the referee. It’s not easy to see that. It was a bit of bad luck,” Courtois explained. “For UEFA, it’s clear. I’m sick of this victimhood, always crying about things like this.

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“Referees don’t want to benefit one team or another in Spain or in Europe, for them it was clear. With the technology, in the VAR room they saw it clearly, they have a lot of cameras and a lot of images.”

Ancelotti agreed and concluded: “It looks to me like he touches it with his left foot. [Penalties] are a lottery, heads or tails. It came up heads today. Atletico go out with their heads high.”

Real will face Arsenal in the quarter-finals, playing the first leg away on April 8 before the second match at home on April 16.

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