A slip, a double contact, a missed penalty.
Just like that, Atletico Madrid endured but another heartbreaking loss to rival Real Madrid within the Champions League.
Julián Álvarez slipped and double-touched the ball whereas taking his penalty kick within the shootout against Madrid on Wednesday (March 12, 2025), ensuing within the aim being erased after video assessment confirmed the infraction.
It would have tied the shootout 2-2. But Real Madrid ultimately moved forward 3-1 and gained by a ultimate rating of 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals and maintain alive its hopes of profitable the Champions League once more.
“I felt that he touched the ball twice, and I told the referee,” Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois stated. “It’s not easy to see that. It was a bit of bad luck for them there.”
The referee didn’t initially see the double contact however Madrid gamers have been calling it to his consideration.
Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti stated he did not discover the double kick within the technique of the penalty being taken, however within the replays “it seemed that there was a second touch with his left foot.”
Atletico coach Diego Simeone stated he didn’t see a double contact by the Argentina worldwide however needed “to believe that if the VAR intervened it’s because it saw something.”
It was onerous to inform from the photographs whether or not Álvarez’s standing left foot, which was the one which slipped, prompted the primary or the second contact on the ball.
According to the foundations, after a primary contact the penalty kicker “must not play the ball again until it has touched another player.” It the infraction happens during the match, than an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team. In a shootout, the goal doesn’t count.
Conor Gallagher scored less than 30 seconds into the match to give Atletico a 1-0 win after regulation and extra time to leave the score 2-2 on aggregate. Madrid won the first leg 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium last week.
For Atletico, which has never won the top European club competition, it meant another excruciating setback against Madrid — the fifth consecutive to the city rival.
Atletico lost two Champions League finals to Madrid — in 2014 and 2016 — and was eliminated the other two times they faced off in the knockout rounds — in the 2015 quarterfinals and 2017 semifinals.
“It hurts,” Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak said. “We played a great match but unfortunately we were a bit unlucky. It’s a shame. It hurts a lot.”
Simeone didn’t want to blame the elimination on bad luck.
“I wouldn’t talk about luck. I would talk about feeling proud of the team that we have and about how we always compete,” Simeone stated. “Madrid has all the time crushed us within the Champions League, however they’ve all the time suffered. I’m certain they will all the time keep in mind that.”
Published – March 13, 2025 06:26 am IST
