A Real slice of luck as Atletico slips up

'Ball didn't move'

Atletico coach Diego Simeone, though, cast suspicion on the decision to rule out Alvarez's penalty.

"The referee said that, when Julian got to the penalty spot, he touched the ball with his standing foot, but the ball did not move," Simeone told reporters.

"But, beyond that, which now just serves to argue about whether it should have counted or not, I am proud of my players, I am happy, truly.

"Why? Because we competed in an exemplary way. And, yes, we could not beat Real Madrid in the Champions League, sure, we could not, but they had a really bad time (against us) again."

The Atletico coach said he wanted to believe the officials got the penalty decision right.

"I've never seen a penalty where they've called the VAR, but, well, they would have seen that he touched it.

"I want to believe, I want to believe they saw he touched it."

The coach asked members of the media to raise a hand if they had seen a replay in which it was clear Alvarez had touched the ball twice.

"Raise your hand, anyone who saw Julian touch it twice, who is going to raise their hand? Nobody has raised their hand," shouted Simeone.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said that he felt the former Manchester City striker did touch the ball twice as he slipped.

"In the end, it's a lottery, I felt a little that he had touched it twice, that's what I told the referee, it is clearly not easy to see, but it's a bit of bad luck for them there," Courtois told Movistar.

The Belgian goalkeeper criticized Atletico for complaining about the decision, but also appeared to take a swipe at his own club, which has been relentlessly attacking Spanish refereeing in recent weeks and claiming it is "rigged".

"I think UEFA saw it clearly — I'm sick of this victimhood, always crying about stuff like this, the refs don't want to help particular teams, not in Spain, not in Europe," Courtois told reporters.

"They saw it clearly, and that's why they made that decision. They saw it clearly with VAR, they have a lot of images and cameras."

Ancelotti also believed it was the correct decision.

"They detected it, when we realized there was this doubt, they had already detected it on VAR," he said.

"I saw it, I think he touched it with his left foot, a second touch."

Agencies