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In a bizarre circumstance, a disallowed penalty from Julian Alvarez helped Real Madrid reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) as they managed to defeat their city rivals Atletico Madrid in the shoot out. After Real Madrid won the first leg 2-1, Altetico Mardrid managed to drag the tie to the penalties with a 1-0 scoreline in their favour at the end of extra-time in the second leg, but then, the Julian Alvarez mistake was enough for them to secure a 4-2 shootout victory margin.
Notably, Conor Gallagher gave a perfect start to Atletico Madrid in the UCL Round of 16 second leg at home in the Metropolitano Stadium after scoring the opening goal in 27 seconds, levelling the tie 2-2 on aggregate. The pulsating second leg produced a few chances for players of both teams, but none of the players took it, which meant that the tie went to penalties after 120 minutes.
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Real Madrid won the UCL Round of 16 tie 4-2 on penalties; set to face Arsenal in quarter-finals
Julian Alvarez, who was the fourth penalty taker on the night, the second for Atletico Madrid, put the ball in the back of the net past Thibaut Courtois. But, in a massive turn of events, the penalty from Argentinian was ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) after it was deemed that he had touched the ball twice while slipping in his attempt to score the goal.
Real Madrid took advantage of the situation, as Fede Valverde converted his penalty to make it 3-1 in favour of his team before Jan Oblak saved the attempt at goal from Lucas Vazquez, to keep Atletico Madrid in the tie. But, following a Marcos Llorente attempt hitting the bar, Antonio Rudiger scored the decisive penalty, which sent Real Madrid into the final eight of the competition.
In the UCL quarter-finals, Real Madrid will be taking on Arsenal, who had defeated PSV Eindhoven decisively with a 9-3 margin on aggregate.
