Atletico Madrid will still be coming to terms with not just another defeat to city rivals Real Madrid in Europe, after they exited on penalties on Wednesday night in the Champions League Round of 16. Rightly or wrongly, there is still a major sense of injustice hanging around the Metropolitano.
While Alvarez scored his penalty, the fourth of the shootout, referee Szymon Marciniak halted play before Fede Valverde took his. On the advice of the VAR, Alvarez’s penalty was disallowed, after they concluded he had touched the ball with his left foot before striking it with his right.
🚨 JUST IN: Atlético Madrid is currently reviewing the incident and evaluating the different options available to them. They do not want to allow such an injustice to put an end to their Champions League journey.
There could be an official statement coming soon.@mundodeportivo pic.twitter.com/AcByD34W2I
— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) March 13, 2025
This led to no shortage of confusion inside the Metropolitano, not least from Julian Alvarez. After returning to his teammates on the halfway line, ESPN footage, as highlighted by Diario AS, shows Alvarez responding ‘I don’t know. Could be, but I don’t know’. Clearly those are words he appears to say without any context from what his teammates are asking him.
In addition, Cadena SER report that once back in the dressing room, Alvarez reportedly told his family that he did not notice any touch of the ball from his left foot before striking it. The World-Cup winner explained that he did slip, but he was not clear that he touched the ball twice, although it is noted that it would be difficult to do so in such a swift action. Relevo explain that on the whole, the Atletico players do not consider the action to be clear and obvious, and thus the VAR should not have intervened. The Union of Supporters Clubs are also considering requesting that Atletico submit a formal complaint to UEFA.
Fresh footage appears to show the ball jumping just before Alvarez hits the ball, which would back up the VAR view of the incident, although some believe that this could have been the impact with the grass rather than the Argentine’s foot. Los Colchoneros found little sympathy from Thibaut Courtois, who said that he was ‘sick of their victimhood‘.
