Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has urged people to not be "afraid" of questioning the decision to rule out Julian Alvarez's penalty during the shoot-out defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Real will now face Arsenal in the next round after beating Atletico 4-2 on spot-kicks but the result has been clouded by controversy after Alvarez - who was second on the list of penalty takers - saw his effort from 12 yards disallowed following a VAR check.
The Argentina forward managed to cannon his effort below the crossbar, despite slipping, but saw it ruled out over a minute later when VAR stated he had touched the ball with both feet.
It was a decision that Simeone disagreed with, after questioning whether or not there was clear evidence to suggest Alvarez had made contact with the ball twice.
He said in his post-match press conference: "Did you guys see it? Did you see it? Did he or didn't he touch the ball?
"Don't be afraid to speak. Are you afraid because you're going to be punished? If you're afraid, don't say anything. Raise your hand if you think Julian knocked twice. No one? No one. Okay.
"Honestly, I won't lie to you, being eliminated the way we've been is not an easy thing to accept."
Simeone continued: "I just saw the image of the penalty. The referee said that when Julian stepped and kicked, he touched the ball with his foot, but the ball didn't move. That's something to discuss about whether it was a goal or not, but I'm proud of my players.
"When he plants his foot and kicks, the ball doesn't move even a little bit. But if VAR called it, I've never seen a penalty called by VAR, but it's still valid, and they'll have seen that he touched it. I want to believe they'll have seen that he touched it."
Real boss Carlo Ancelotti also commented on the shoot-out, which came after his side lost 1-0 in the second leg to make it 2-2 on aggregate, where he agreed with the decision to rule the penalty out.
"I think they had detected it already at the VAR when we were hesitating. We haven't warned them, not me at least because I didn't realise. I've seen the replay and I think he touches it with his left foot, the second touch."
Atletico's Marcos Llorente, as well as Lucas Vazquez for the opposing side in Madrid, went on to also miss but it was Antonio Rudiger's shot that squeezed past the hands of goalkeeper Jan Oblak to fire his side into the quarter-finals.
Speaking after the game, Oblak revealed the referee's decision must be "respected" but highlighted how much of a "pity" it was to bow out of Europe's elite competition in this manner.
"The decisions of the referee must be respected. I haven't seen it but it's probably true," he said.
"It's such a pity anyway because [Thibaut] Courtois has gone to the opposite side and the ball would have gone in anyway, but this is football and this is how unlucky we've been."
His counterpart and former Atletico player Courtois, who claimed he advised referee Szymon Marciniak to review the penalty after it went in, was less sympathetic after the game having stated it was "bad luck" for their rivals.
He said: "I felt that he touched the ball twice and I told the referee. It's not easy to see that. It was a bit of bad luck for them there.
"With the technology, in the VAR room they saw it clearly, they have a lot of cameras and a lot of images."
Atletico defender Clement Lenglet did not take a penalty in the shoot-out after being substituted in the 91st minute for Robin Le Normand.
After watching on from the sidelines, the 29-year-old explained he had "never seen" a decision like this in football but like Oblak, he respected the referees choice.
"We haven't seen the replay but what's happened is easy to understand," Lenglet said.
"This is the first time I see a referee whistling this kind of thing. But if it's the rules we need to respect it. But it's not funny because we have scored 4 penalties, the same as them, so in the end this is a tie."
SPORT
In the images you can clearly see how the left foot drags due to the slip and what is crystal clear is that it does not graze the ball once it shoots with the right foot.
And before. Well, you can't see at any time that he didn't give it a touch either.
In any case, either in the VAR they had a better image than this - something that does not seem likely - or the referee of the match, the Polish Marciniak was very poorly advised from the VAR room.
There is no image that clarifies absolutely anything why they should not have intervened in such a decisive action.
AS
It just so happens that Szymon Marciniak experienced this same situation, but it hardly had any repercussions: it was in the final of the 2022 World Cup, in which Argentina was proclaimed world champion by defeating France in the penalty shootout.
The first goal of the match was scored by Messi from the penalty spot.
The Argentine executed his shot and, if you look closely at the play, the ball passes and touches his right foot. Marciniak conceded the goal...
