Diego Simeone insisted that the “ball didn’t move”, as he questioned the decision to rule out Julian Alvarez’s penalty.
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Simeone insisted that “ball didn’t move”
The Champions League round-of-16 tie ended 2-2 on aggregate on Wednesday after Conor Gallagher’s early goal secured a 1-0 win for Atletico at the Metropolitano, forcing extra time.
Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Fede Valverde, and Antonio Rudiger all converted their penalties for Real.
Meanwhile, VAR ruled out Alvarez’s penalty for Atletico due to a supposed double touch on the ball, leading to Atletico’s controversial exit from the Champions League.
“The referee said when Julian got to the penalty spot he touched the ball with his standing foot, but the ball did not move,” Simeone told reporters.
Atlético dominated much of Wednesday’s game, and Simeone said he was “at peace” with the result, because “the team gave everything.”
“But beyond that, which now just serves to argue about whether it should have counted or not, I am proud of my players, I am happy, truly.”
“Why? Because we competed in an exemplary way. And yes, we could not beat Real Madrid in the Champions League, sure, we could not, but they had a really bad time (against us) again.”
“I’ve never seen a penalty where they’ve called the VAR, but well, they would have seen that he touched it, I want to believe, I want to believe they saw he touched it.”
Simeone then challenged the journalists to raise their hand if they thought Álvarez’s penalty should have been disallowed.
“Raise your hand, anyone who saw Julian touch it twice, who is going to raise their hand? Nobody has raised their hand,” shouted Simeone.
Real criticizes Simeone
Meanwhile, Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said he felt the Argentina international did touch the ball twice as he slipped.
“In the end it’s a lottery, I felt a little that he had touched it twice, that’s what I told the referee, it is clearly not easy to see, but it’s a bit of bad luck for them there,” Courtois told Movistar.
He added: “For UEFA, it’s clear. I’m sick of this victimhood, always crying about things like this. Referees don’t want to benefit one team or another in Spain or in Europe, for them it was clear.”
“With the technology, in the VAR room they saw it clearly, they have a lot of cameras and a lot of images.”
Head coach Carlo Ancelotti agreed with Courtois’ comments as well.
“It looks to me like he touches it with his left foot,” Ancelotti said.
“[Penalties] are a lottery, heads or tails. It came up heads today. Atletico go out with their heads high.”
Real Madrid will now play Arsenal in the quarterfinals.
