RTE paid the penalty for not sending a commentary team over to Madrid as their coverage missed a trick around the pivotal spot-kick.
Julian Alvarez’ peno was controversially ruled out by VAR due to a supposed double-kick as Real Madrid once again inflicted a heartbreaking elimination on their neighbours.
He slipped at the decisive moment as he scored past Thibaut Courtois[/caption]
Replays looked inconclusive over whether he had definitely kicked it onto his left foot[/caption]
However, RTE’s commentary pair of Des Curran and Ray Houghton were slow to realise that the Argentine’s strike had been altered to a miss.
Had they been situated in the Metropolitano they would’ve copped much quicker as the big screen there alerted spectators to the controversial ruling.
In the case of TNT Sports duo Sam Matterface and Steve McManaman, they had this edge over their Irish counterparts.
So while it was no fault of Curran and the Euro ’88 legend, there was a fair degree of frustration vented at RTE’s budget-restricted choice.
Ronan Mullen of the Indo Sport podcast summed it up, tweeting: “This is the issue commentating on games in a TV studio and not at the stadium.
“RTE hadn’t a breeze that the Alvarez penalty was disallowed.”
Jason agreed, adding: “It’s the cheap option.”
Similarly, Malachy McGowan posted: “RTE hadn’t a clue that the Alvarez penalty was disallowed (laughing emoji). What a service.
Finally, @manaboutdogblog fumed: “RTE having a shocker in this shootout. They didn’t realise Alvarez pen was disallowed.
“This is what happens when they don’t send anyone to the match. Jokers.”
Conor Gallagher had scored a shocking 27-second opener to level the tie up, but Atletico could not find a winner against their old rivals.
Everything looked to be going against Real, especially when Vinicius Junior missed a woeful normal-time penalty.
But they turned it around in the shootout – as they always do against Atletico – but not without some controversy.
Alvarez slipped as he smashed home his penalty – but it was dramatically referred to VAR.
The shootout continued before the effort was disallowed as the ex-Manchester City forward was ruled to have touched the ball twice.
Jan Oblak went onto save from Lucas Vazquez, but the keeper’s team-mate Marcos Llorente then struck the bar.
That enabled Antonio Rudiger to squirm home Real’s winning kick under the grasp of Oblak – with Atleti supporters en masse then realising the full impact of VAR.
The defending champions will face Arsenal in the quarter-finals after they advanced 9-3 on aggregate against PSV Eindhoven.
