J. Alvarez's controversially canceled penalty – is it legal or not?

2025-03-13 01:18 © AP

In the Champions League quarter-final series match between Real Madrid and Atletico, a lot of commotion arose from the disallowed penalty shot by Julián Alvarez.

The Argentinian equalized the score (2:2) in the penalty shootout, and Atletico fans briefly calmed down. However, this moment of peace was short-lived.

Before the next penalty shot, which Federico Valverde was about to take, referee Szymon Marciniak requested a pause – VAR hurried to check whether J. Alvarez's strangely executed penalty was illegal.

In the end, by VAR's decision, the "spider" goal was canceled. This raised many questions. The decision was justified by the fact that the striker touched the ball with both feet while sliding, which is illegal.

Initially, footage appeared on social media where it's nearly impossible to see any contact between the ball and both feet.

An ESPN journalist dismissed one of the theories and confirmed that UEFA's ball does not have sensors that would indicate if the ball was touched twice. Such sensors are only used during European championships.

Meanwhile, soccer rules expert Christina Unkel stated on CBS Sports that this decision was made using semi-automated offside technology.

It would be hard to believe that such a decision was made incorrectly, as this is of the highest level. In any case, questioning this decision is normal, as this case is unprecedented.

Julián Alvarez disallowed penalty frame by frame
byu/AlmostNL insoccer