Real Madrid's penalty revoked, Rice escapes suspension

UEFA confirmed Rice's impact was not enough to award a penalty.

At the Bernabeu, the incident happened in the 30th minute when Declan Rice was penalized for pulling Kylian Mbappe's shirt in the penalty area. Referee Francois Letexier immediately pointed to the 11m mark and showed the English midfielder a yellow card.

However, after consulting VAR, the referee reviewed the situation on the VAR screen on the sideline and decided to cancel the penalty as well as the yellow card for Rice. UEFA briefly announced: "The penalty for Real Madrid was denied due to no fault on Rice's part."

VAR's intervention helped Rice escape a suspension in the first leg of the semi-final against PSG, as he would have been banned if he had received another yellow card. This was clearly a valuable "lifesaver" for Arsenal as Rice is the most important link in the midfield.

The 26-year-old was the hero of the first leg with two fantastic free-kicks, helping Arsenal gain an advantage ahead of their trip to Madrid.

Not long after the controversy, VAR continued to stir up the Bernabeu. Raul Asencio was caught pulling down Mikel Merino. Initially, the referee ignored the incident, but when VAR intervened, Mr. Letexier awarded Arsenal a penalty, which angered Madridistas.

Unfortunately, Bukayo Saka could not take advantage of the opportunity to score. His panenka shot was easily intercepted by Thibaut Courtois. However, Saka made up for his mistake in the 65th minute with a classy chip to open the scoring. Two minutes later, William Saliba's mistake allowed Vinicius to equalize.

However, all hopes of the Bernabeu team officially ended when Gabriel Martinelli coolly scored the winning goal 2-1 right in Madrid, bringing Arsenal to the semi-finals with a total score of 5-1 after 2 matches.

Source: https://znews.vn/real-bi-tuoc-phat-den-rice-thoat-an-trèo-gio-post1546497.html