Real Madrid are through to the Champions League semifinal for a record 13th time, after Cristiano Ronaldo converted a late penalty in their 3-1 loss to Juventus in the quarter final second leg.
With Los Blancos leading 3-0 from the first leg, Juve took a leaf from their Serie A rivals, AS Roma, to erase that lead within an hour with a stunning performance at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The Italians were without their Argentine forward, Paulo Dybala, who was suspended for game. But in Mario Mandzukic, the found a worthy replacement as the ex-Atletico Madrid man scored two excellent first half headers to put the Old Lady 2-0 ahead at half time.
Blaise Matuidi added a third in the second, following a goalkeeping error from Keylor Navas, to put the Serie A giants 3-0 up on the night, and level on aggregate, 3-3.
However, just when they thought they had done enough to drag the game into extra time, English referee, Michael Oliver, awarded the hosts a penalty in controversial circumstances.
Second half substitute, Lucas Vazquez, found a large pocket of space in the Juve box, following a cross from the right wing, and as he was set for the kill, Mehdi Benatia hauled him down.
Left with no other option, Oliver gave Real a penalty, leading to wild protests from Juve players led by goalkeeper, Gigi Buffon, who was eventually sent of by the English official for dissent.
Obviously, no better person than Ronaldo to step up to the plate, with so much pressure, and the Portuguese made no mistakes from the spot to send Real to yet another CL semifinal appearance.
That decision by Oliver caused a lot of reactions on social media, despite replays showing Benatia clearly fouled Vazquez.
Here are some of the best, with some questioning the timing of the call.
But according to these accounts, Oliver isn’t ‘mad’, as they believe the Englishman was spot on with his decision.
And now, back to more protests, led by this guy who thinks the official is lucky he’s not Nigerian.
Oliver gets more support;
And one last one, nah, not in support of that decision by the ref.
But what do you think about that call? Was the referee right or wrong? And why? Get in touch in the comments section, tell us what you think.
