Atletico Madrid felt very aggrieved at their Champions League exit last season, and that feeling was heightened earlier this week when it was confirmed that the rule on “double-touch” penalties would be changed going forward. In effect, it means that Julian Alvarez’s effort during the shoot-out defeat to Real Madrid, which was controversially ruled out at the time, would now be allowed to stand.
Julian Alvarez recounts Atletico Madrid penalty controversy
Alvarez and Atleti were amazed at the decision to disallow his penalty, and that feeling has remained to his day. The Argentine striker has maintained his stance that a second touch cannot be perceived, as he made clear during a recent interview with DAZN (via Cadena SER).
“It was a little unfair and there was a lot of anger because to this day we don’t know if it was two touches or not. That’s it… The video came out, I saw it ten million times, especially those days, because it was everywhere. It is very difficult to perceive, it is impossible to notice.
“We had done a great match, we were so close to going through… That everything falls down because of something like this hurt a lot.”
The decision hurt Atleti so much more because it was against Real Madrid, their bitter rivals. At the time of Alvarez’s penalty, they were in a good position in the shoot-out, but it mattered little as they would go on to be defeated, extending their poor record against Los Blancos in the Champions League.
While it is positive that clarification has arrived on the matter, it does little to help Atleti now. They still feel a sense of injustice at the way they were knocked out of last season’s Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid.
