CNN
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There is almost always drama when local rivals Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid play each other, but Wednesday’s match in the last 16 of the Champions League takes some beating.
The result – Los Blancos progressing to the quarterfinals of the tournament after a penalty shootout win – is all too familiar, but the circumstances in which it happened is anything but.
The controversy centers around a disallowed penalty during a dramatic shootout, where the video assistant referee (VAR) determined that Atlético’s Julián Álvarez had double-kicked his effort.
The moment gave Real Madrid an advantage on which it capitalized, but it also sent confusion and anger swirling around the stadium on a memorable night of Champions League action.
Real Madrid had won the first leg of the tie 2-1, but an Atleti goal within the first minute of the second leg on Wednesday leveled the aggregate score inside a feverish Metropolitano Stadium.
The host then dug in to keep Madrid’s superstars at arm’s length, with both sides struggling to find a decisive goal.
Vinícius Jr. had the best chance to send his side through, but the Merengues striker blasted his 70th-minute spot-kick over the crossbar after Kylian Mbappé had been fouled in the box.
Both teams continued to cancel each other out through a tense extra-time period, to set up what would become a controversial penalty shootout.
After three penalties had been converted, Álvarez stepped up to take his side’s second spot-kick. The home crowd initially breathed a sigh of relief as the striker seemingly dispatched his effort into the top corner of the net, appearing to slip as he did so.
The shootout continued, with Real’s Federico Valverde stepping up to take the next penalty. However, before he was allowed to do so, referee Szymon Marciniak suddenly indicated that Álvarez’s effort had been ruled out after VAR had spotted the double-kick.
Not everyone in the stadium saw what had happened, with the scoreboards initially still indicating that Álvarez had scored his penalty.
However, replays showed the 25-year-old had inadvertently touched the ball twice while taking his effort. His left foot, which had slipped beneath him as he ran up, had narrowly touched the ball before shooting with his right foot.
Although the small touch made very little difference to the outcome, the rules in such situations are clear, with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) – the organization charged with the laws of the game – stating: “The kicker must not play the ball again until it has touched another player.”
If the same situation happened during regular time, an indirect free kick would have been given to the opposing team – on Wednesday night, it would have been Real Madrid.
Such situations have happened before in soccer, but few in such a pivotal moment between two of the game’s biggest rivals.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA confirmed the correct decision was made by the refereeing team, but said it would discuss with the IFAB and FIFA whether the current rules should apply when the double-touch is so clearly accidental.
Atlético’s Marcos Llorente and Real’s Lucas Vázquez went on to miss penalties during the shootout, but Antonio Rüdiger somehow squeezed his effort through the hands of goalkeeper Jan Oblak to send Los Blancos into the next round, where the 15-time European champion will now play Arsenal.
While proud of his team’s efforts, Atlético Madrid’s manager Diego Simeone was visibly frustrated by the heartbreaking manner in which his side bowed out.
“Whoever is here and saw that Julián (Álvarez) touched the ball twice, raise your hands! Raise your hand! Come on, come on! Who is going to raise their hand?” he yelled at the scant reporters gathered after the match in the press room.
“Who is going to raise their hand and say Julián touched the ball twice? Oh? No one is raising their hand! OK, next question!”
Real Madrid’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, though, said he had seen the double-kick and had alerted the referee to the situation during the shootout.
He also told reporters that he was frustrated by those who struggled to accept the decision.
“I’m sick of this making yourself the victim, always crying just because,” he said. “In the end, I don’t think referees are here to benefit one team or another, neither in Spain nor in Europe. I think in the end, they saw it clearly and that’s why they whistled it like that.”
Meanwhile, Real boss Carlo Ancelotti said Atleti’s players could hold their heads high after losing what was a “lottery” of a shootout.
“I think the referees had already spotted it on VAR when we realized,” he said when asked about Álvarez’s penalty. “I didn’t see it initially, but it looks like he did touch it with his left foot when I watched it back.”
He added: “I was pretty calm about it all. When it’s a lottery like that, you toss the coin and luckily it went our way.”
