MADRID (AP) — A slip, a double touch, a missed penalty.
Just like that, Atletico Madrid endured yet another heartbreaking loss to rival Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Julián Álvarez slipped and double-touched the ball while taking his penalty kick in the shootout against Madrid on Wednesday, resulting in the goal being erased after video review confirmed the infraction.
It would have tied the shootout 2-2. But Real Madrid eventually moved ahead 3-1 and won by a final score of 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals and keep alive its hopes of winning the Champions League again.
“I felt that he touched the ball twice and I told the referee,” Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said. “It's not easy to see that. It was a bit of bad luck for them there.”
The referee did not initially see the double touch but Madrid players were calling it to his attention.
Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said he didn't notice the double kick in the process of the penalty being taken, but in the replays “it seemed that there was a second touch with his left foot.”
Atletico coach Diego Simeone said he didn’t see a double touch by the Argentina international but wanted “to believe that if the VAR intervened it’s because it saw something.”
It was hard to tell from the images whether Álvarez’s standing left foot, which was the one that slipped, caused the first or the second touch on the ball.
According to the rules, after a first touch the penalty kicker "must not play the ball again until it has touched another player.” It the infraction happens during the match, than an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team. In a shootout, the goal doesn't count.
Conor Gallagher scored less than 30 seconds into the match to give Atletico a 1-0 win after regulation and extra time to leave the score 2-2 on aggregate. Madrid won the first leg 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium last week.
For Atletico, which has never won the top European club competition, it meant another excruciating setback against Madrid — the fifth consecutive to the city rival.
Atletico lost two Champions League finals to Madrid — in 2014 and 2016 — and was eliminated the other two times they faced off in the knockout rounds — in the 2015 quarterfinals and 2017 semifinals.
“It hurts,” Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak said. “We played a great match but unfortunately we were a bit unlucky. It's a shame. It hurts a lot.”
Simeone didn't want to blame the elimination on bad luck.
“I wouldn’t talk about luck. I would talk about feeling proud of the team that we have and about how we always compete," Simeone said. “Madrid has always beaten us in the Champions League, but they have always suffered. I'm sure they'll always remember that.”
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Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez, right, stands up after falling to the ground when taking a penalty kick during a shootout at the end of the Champions League round of 16, second leg, soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez falls to the ground after taking a penalty kick during a shootout at the end of the Champions League round of 16, second leg, soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez falls to the ground after taking a penalty kick during a shootout at the end of the Champions League round of 16, second leg, soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
