Legendary footballer, Diego Maradona has said that the penalty awarded to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter final second leg game on Wednesday night against Juventus was not worth it.
Lucas Vazquez had gone down inside the 18-yard box under pressure from Mehdi Benatia, who appeared to push him from behind, and 33-year-old English referee, Michael Oliver, immediately pointed to the penalty spot.
The 93rd-minute penalty call had sent the Juventus players into a rage which generated so much ruckus that it took five minutes before calm was restored enough for the penalty to be taken and converted by Cristiano Ronaldo.
This, of course, was after Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon had been shown a straight red card for dissent.
Madrid thus qualified on a 4-3 aggregate win, with many pundits blaming the penalty for Juventus’s ouster.
Maradona also joined the fray, saying in an interview published by MARCA, “It was not a penalty, no!.
“When Ronaldo heads the ball, Lucas had to throw himself at it because he was next to Buffon, and he had Benatia coming in from behind.
“He did as I would do it too, grabbed his chance and threw himself over.”