Furious Simeone slams VAR penalty decision after controversial Real Madrid defeat

• UEFA to approach FIFA for possible rule change

Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone insists that Julian Alvarez’s penalty against Real Madrid shouldn’t have been disallowed, reports mirror.co.uk. Alvarez took Atletico’s second penalty in a dramatic shootout after his team beat their local rivals 1-0 in the second leg of their Champions League Round-of-16 clash, making the scores 2-2 on aggregate. The ex-Manchester City star slipped while taking his shot but the ball still went high into the back of the net.

Before Real’s Federico Valverde could take the next penalty, though, a VAR check took place. Polish video assistant referee Tomasz Kwiatkowski ruled that Alvarez’s standing foot had touched the ball before is shot, resulting in the penalty going down as a miss.

That gave Carlo Ancelotti’s visiting side the advantage and they made it count to win the shootout 4-2. Simeone was skeptical of the decision, saying during his post-match press conference: “I’ve just seen the images, the referee said that Julian touched the ball with his supporting leg, but the ball didn’t move. That’s debatable, whether it was a goal or not. But I’m proud of my players, I’m honestly happy because we competed in an exemplary way.”

The Argentine continued: “When Julian kicked (the penalty), the ball didn’t even move a bit. I imagine that they called the VAR and saw that he touched it. I want to believe that they would have seen that he touched it.”

Simeone then told journalists who were in the room: “Raise your hand, anyone who saw Julian touch it twice. Who is going to raise their hand? Nobody has raised their hand.”

Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who used to play for Atletico under Simeone, accused them of “victimhood.”

I felt that he touched