Julian Alvarez’s spot kick was controversially ruled out in Atletico Madrid’s shoot-out defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League – but why was it disallowed, and did the forward even break the rules at all?
Alvarez was second on Atletico’s list of penalty takers in their Champions League last-16 shoot-out, after they had beaten city-rivals Real 1-0 in the second leg to square the tie 2-2 on aggregate.
The Argentine stepped up from 12 yards and, despite slipping, smashed his penalty just beneath the crossbar past a helpless Thibault Courtois. More than a minute later the kick was disallowed following a VAR check which ruled that he had touched the ball with both feet as he fell.
In IFAB’s 2024/25 Laws of the Game, in describing the procedure of a penalty shoot-out it is stated: “[A penalty] kick is completed when the ball stops moving, goes out of play or the referee stops play for any offence; the kicker may not play the ball a second time.”
In the end, that rule would prove crucial in the shoot-out as Real progressed 4-2 on spot kicks, with Marcos Llorente and Lucas Vazquez both also missing penalties for either side.
At the time Alvarez’s effort was disallowed, Real’s next taker Federico Valverde had been waiting for his own attempt for some time when referee Szymon Marciniak, who was the man in the middle for Man City’s Champions League final win over Inter in 2023, pointed to both of his own feet and crossed his arms to signal that the previous goal had been disallowed.
Large sections of the support inside the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium appeared unaware that Alvarez’s effort had been chalked off, while many of the wider viewing public questioned whether it should have been disallowed at all.
Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone refused to criticised Marciniak and his team of officials but did question whether there was conclusive proof Alvarez had touched the ball twice – as a number of TV angles appeared to show his standing leg may not have made contact with it at all.
“I just saw the image of the penalty,” he told his post-match press conference. “The referee said that when Julián stepped and kicked, he touched the ball with his foot, but the ball didn’t move. That’s something to discuss about whether it was a goal or not, but I’m proud of my players.
“When he plants his foot and kicks, the ball doesn’t move even a little bit. But if VAR called it, I’ve never seen a penalty called by VAR, but it’s still valid, and they’ll have seen that he touched it. I want to believe they’ll have seen that he touched it.”
Addressing the room of journalists directly, he then added: “What did you see? Raise your hand if you think Julian knocked twice. I didn’t speak to him.”
There was no obvious sign at first that Marciniak had been told by his VAR about an ongoing check, and after the game Real goalkeeper Courtois admitted he had pointed out to the referee that he felt Alvarez had committed the offence – which may have been what led to the check.
“I felt that he touched the ball twice and I told the referee,” he said. “It’s not easy to see that. It was a bit of bad luck for them there.”
