Courtesy: Google
A latest controversy that has taken the world of football by storm is the disallowed penalty of Julian Alvarez in the latest Madrid derby during the second leg of the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League (UCL). In the deciding penalty shoot-out, the Argentine forward put his penalty past Thibaut Courtois while he slipped just before releasing his shot. Although the penalty was counted at that time, moments later after VAR intervention, it was found that Alvarez had touched the ball twice while he slipped to take his penalty and therefore as per the rules, it had to be disallowed. The repercussions of this had to be borne by the entire Atletico team as they lost 4-2 to Real Madrid in the penalty shootout.
Fomrer Dutch striker Marco van Basten recently gave his take on this incident saying that Julian Alvarez had touched the ball only once and the decision taken by the VAR was incorrect. He said, “I’m not for Real or Atletico but Julian Alvarez touches the ball once.” referring to the fact that he is neutral in this matter. He also urged the UEFA officials to look into this matter and come up with a decision via his Instagram story.
No time to sulk for Atletico Madrid
The volume and impact of the decision taken during the penalty shoot-out is enormous as it directly reflects onto the result of such a high-profile fixture. The match between the two Madrid sides had ended 1-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano after Conor Gallagher scored the only goal of the match in the first minute itself. This meant that the aggregate score after the two legs was 2-2 and even after 120 minutes of football played in the second leg, these two teams couldn’t be separated.
While Atletico fans and the team themself will be very upset with the decision and the overall result of the match, they have some very big and important fixtures coming up, including one against FC Barcelona. They will play the league leaders in La Liga on Sunday which will be a game that will go a long way in deciding the title winners for this season. After that they will face the Blaugrana once again in the second leg of the Copa Del Rey semi-final which is drawn with a score of 4-4 in the first leg.
