"It's anti-football", "Biggest robbery of all time" - Fans react to Julian Alvarez's disallowed pen in Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid UCL clash

Fans online expressed their anger at Julian Alvarez's penalty being disallowed during the shootout in the UEFA Champions League Round-of-16 second leg between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. Los Blancos won 4-2 on penalties and eliminated Rojiblancos on Wednesday (March 12).

Conor Callagher had given Atletico Madrid the lead within 30 seconds after the game started to cancel out Real Madrid’s aggregate lead. Both sides pushed for a go-ahead goal throughout the 120 minutes at the Metropolitano Stadium but to no avail. A 2-2 draw across both legs meant a penalty shootout would be the tiebreaker.

Los Blancos took first as Kylian Mbappe stepped up for his side and sent Jan Oblak the wrong way. Alexander Sorloth then came up for Atletico Madrid, choosing where Mbappe put his effort and sending Courtois the wrong way. Jude Bellingham took Real Madrid’s second spot kick of the shootout and clinically dispatched his effort.

Julian Alvarez thought he leveled the contest at 2-2, only for a VAR review to cancel it for a ''double touch'' as the striker slipped and saw his effort clip his standing foot.

Federico Valverde scored Los Blancos’s third and Angel Correa also converted for Los Colchoneros. Atletico Madrid were handed a lifeline when Oblak kept out Lucas Vazquez’s effort, only for Marcos Llorente to hit the woodwork and put Real Madrid back on the front foot.

Antonio Rüdiger secured Real Madrid's place in the quarterfinals with a powerful effort that proved too difficult for Jan Oblak to stop. However, fans expressed outrage on social media over the controversial decision to overturn Álvarez’s penalty, deeming it unfair.

An X user wrote:

''Cancelling a penalty because there might have been a double touch is abhorrent. At the very least, Álvarez should be given a chance to retake it. But if there isn’t even clear-cut evidence of a double touch, why nullify it? There’s no other way to put it: it’s anti-football.''

Another tweeted:

''Biggest robbery of all time.''

''It’s so clear that they want Madrid to go through,'' @Dafe_peterson asserted.

''I swear if it was a Real Madrid player the penalty would have counted. Fuck this competition,'' @MusialaEra wrote.

''Whatever the correctness of the actual decision, it feels overly harsh for that to be the punishment for something as exacting as a shoot-out. Should be a retake. It's a slip, not an intentional attempt to cheat. Absurd,'' @MiguelDelaney opined.

''It looks like he did touch it with his left foot'' – Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti on Julian Alvarez’s disallowed penalty

Carlo Ancelotti also shared his thoughts on Julian Alvarez’s disallowed penalty in the shootout, saying the referees made the correct call after reviewing the incident on VAR.

Ancelotti said (via the club’s website):

“I think the referees had already spotted it on VAR when we realised. I didn't see it initially, but it looks like he did touch it with his left foot when I watched it back."

Los Blancos will face Arsenal in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.