Julian Alvarez’s kick was controversially excluded in the defeat of the attack on Atletico Madrid against Real Madrid in the Champions League-but why was he prohibited, and did the attacker even break the rules?
Alvarez finished second on the list of penalty takers in Atletico during their shooting in the Champions League, after having beat the rivals of the city 1-0 in the second stage to attend the 2-2 draw in aggregate.
The Argentinian went from 12 meters and, despite the shift, broke his penalty just under the transverse bar in front of a helpless courteous Thibault. More than a minute later, the kick was prohibited as a result of a Var check which judged that it had touched the ball with both feet as it fell.
In the laws of the game in 2024/25 of the IFAB, by describing the procedure of a penalty shootout, it is indicated: “[A penalty] The kick is finished when the ball stops moving, leaves the game or the referee stops playing for any offense; The kicker may not play the ball a second time. “”
In the end, this rule would prove to be crucial in the shooting while the real progressed 4-2 on the kicks, Marcos Llorente and Lucas Vazquez also lacking penalties for each side.
At the time, Alvarez’s efforts were prohibited, the next taker of Real Federico Valverde has been waiting for his own attempt for some time when referee Szymon Marciniak, who was the man in the middle for the arms of the Champions League of Man City on 2023, said both feet on his own feet and crossed his arms to point out that the previous objective had been interrupted.
Large sections of support within the Wanda Metropolitano stadium did not seem to know that Alvarez’s efforts had been withdrawn, while many of the wider audience wondered if it should have been prohibited.
The boss of Atletico Madrid, Diego Simeone, refused to criticize Marciniak and his team of officials, but wondered if there was a conclusive proof that Alvarez had touched the ball twice – because a certain number of television angles seemed to show that his standing leg was perhaps not at all to contact.
Julian Alvarez slipped while kicking
“I just saw the image of the penalty,” he told his post-match press conference. “The referee said that when Julián walked and kicked, he touched the ball with his foot, but the ball did not move. It is something to discuss if it was a goal or not, but I am proud of my players.
“When he plants his foot and kicks, the ball does not move a little. But if Var called him, I have never seen a penalty called by Var, but it is always valid, and they will have seen that he touched it. I want to believe that they will have seen that he touched it.”
Addressing himself directly to the journalist room, he then added: “What did you see? Listed his hand if you think Julian hit twice. I didn’t tell him.”
There was no obvious sign at the beginning that Marciniak had been informed by his Var on a check in progress, and after the match, the real courteous goalkeeper admitted that he had pointed out to the referee that he thought that Alvarez had committed the offense – which had perhaps led to the check.
“I felt that he had touched the ball twice and I said to the referee,” he said. “It’s not easy to see this. It was a bit of bad luck there.”
