Julian Alvarez’s spotkick was controversially ruled out in Atletico Madrid’s defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League, but why wasn’t it allowed?
Alvarez was second on Atletico’s penalty takers list. He cut off 2-2 in the tally, 2-2 as he beat his City rival 1-0 in the second leg in the Champions League, with his final 16 shotouts.
Argentina stepped up from 12 yards and broke the penalty past a helpless Thibaut court core just under the crossbar, despite being slipped. More than a minute later, the kick was denied following the VAR check.
The 2024/25 law of IFAB games states that when explaining the penalty shootout procedure: “[A penalty] The kick is completed when the ball stops moving, finishes play, or the referee stops playing for an attack. The kicker may not play the ball for the second time. ”
Ultimately, that rule proves to be extremely important in a shootout. In fact, Real advanced 4-2 with a spot kick, with Marcos Lorente and Lucas Vazquez both losing penalties on either side.
When Alvarez’s efforts were permitted, Real’s next taker Federico Valverde was waiting for his own attempt for a while as Man City League final victory umpire Simon Marciniac pointed both his feet and crossed his arms over the previous goal in 2023.
A large section of support within Wandame Tropolitano Stadium seemed unaware that Alvarez’s efforts had been taken away from the choke, but many of the wider audience questioned whether it should be forgiven at all.
Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone refused to criticize Marciniac and his team of officials, but questioned whether there was conclusive evidence Alvarez touched twice – many television angles were visible indicating that his standing legs might not be in contact at all.
Julian Alvarez skated while kicking
“I just saw the image of a penalty,” he told a post-game press conference. “The referee said that when Julian stepped in and kicked, he touched the ball with his foot, but the ball didn’t move. It’s a debate whether it was a goal or not.
“The ball doesn’t move at all when he plantes and kicks his legs. But if Var calls it, I’ve never seen a penalty called by Var, but it was still valid and they’d seen him touched it.
Speaking directly to the journalist’s room, he added:
At first there was no obvious indication that Marciniak was told about the ongoing checks from the VAR. After the game, the actual goalkeeper Courtois admitted to pointing out to the judge that Alvarez felt he had committed a crime.
“He felt he touched the ball twice and told the referee,” he said. “It’s not easy to see that. It was a bit unlucky for them.”
