Diego Simeone has voiced out his dissatisfaction towards the referee’s decision to rule out Julian Alvarez’s spot-kick in the penalty shootout, which knocked Atletico Madrid out of the Champions League.
The Rojiblancos were defeated 4-2 on penalties by Real Madrid, which saw Alvarez’s penalty being ruled out for double touch.
During the shootout, the Argentine slipped and VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before kicking with his right. With only one touch permitted, the penalty, which would have levelled the shootout at 2-2, was disallowed.
Atletico coach, Simeone was left fuming over referee Szymon Marciniak’s decision. He stated that he was yet to see an image that conclusively showed that Alvarez touched the ball twice.
“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 said during the post-conference.
“I’ve never seen the VAR called to review a penalty in a shootout… Never.
“Did you see him touching the ball twice? Please, whoever was present in the stadium and saw him touching the ball twice, the ball moving, please come forward and raise your hand.
“I don’t see anybody with their hand raised so that’s all I have to say… next question.”
The Argentine man went on to praise his players despite the heartbreaking defeat. He stated that he was proud of his players and hoped they could recover quickly as they host Barcelona next.
“We’ll see if this defeat will cost us moving forward. The way we went out, it’s not easy to digest,” Simeone said.
“We have a great opponent on Sunday. I’m sure Barca wanted us to go to extra time. We will get to the game tired, beaten after we competed the way we had to compete tonight, but we’ll give it everything we’ve got on Sunday.
“Our fans went home annoyed, but knowing that their team gave their all. There’s a way to go to sleep thinking too bad, but this team deserved the applause. It was a beautiful evening, but unfortunately we didn’t go through. I go home in defeat, but in peace.”
Atletico lies in third place, a point behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, who are both on 57 points.
Although, Barcelona has a game on hand, a win for Diego Simeone side will still see them behind by a point should Barca win their extra game.
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