In recent high-stakes football matches, penalty controversies have taken center stage, notably involving Lionel Messi in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final and Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 clash between Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
During the 2022 FIFA World Cup final on December 18, 2022, Argentina faced France in a thrilling match that ended 3-3 after extra time, leading to a penalty shootout. Lionel Messi, Argentina\u2019s captain, successfully converted his penalty during the shootout, contributing to Argentina\u2019s 4-2 victory in penalties, securing their third World Cup title. There were no reports or controversies suggesting that Messi\u2019s penalty involved a double touch; his execution was clean and within the rules.<\/p>\n
On March 12, 2025, the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match between Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and Real Madrid culminated in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 aggregate score. A pivotal moment occurred when Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez slipped while taking his penalty, leading to a double contact with the ball\u2014first with his standing foot and then with his kicking foot. According to the rules, a penalty must be taken with a single touch; thus, the goal was disallowed after a VAR review.<\/p>\n
This decision sparked controversy. Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s coach, Diego Simeone, questioned the call, challenging anyone to confirm witnessing the double touch. \u00c1lvarez himself admitted to slipping but did not feel the double contact, adding to the debate.\u00a0 Real Madrid\u2019s goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, defended the referee\u2019s decision, expressing frustration over the perceived victimhood narrative from Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n
The Laws of the Game stipulate that during a penalty kick, the ball must be kicked in a single motion. If the kicker touches the ball twice before it contacts another player, the goal is disallowed, and an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team. This rule ensures fairness and maintains the integrity of the penalty-taking process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In recent high-stakes football matches, penalty controversies have taken center stage, notably involving Lionel Messi in the 2022 FIFA World\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":36425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[487],"class_list":["post-15008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-lionel-messi"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}