Without a doubt, the highlight of football is when it feeds controversy like it did yesterday during the magnificent match between the Real Madrid and the Juventus , which defined who would secure a place in the semifinals of the Champions League . English football, that for the first time in 80 years doesn't take a referee to the World Cup, had in Michael Oliver – a 33-year-old referee – the main protagonist, as he dared to call a penalty in stoppage time.
If there was a foul or not...if they always lend a hand to the Real Madrid or whether the Cup will be stained now should the Real Madrid win its 13th title, this is just a bunch of nonsense that you hear and read everywhere after the brave call of the foul in the area by this referee. Penalties aren't called by popular demand or by polls on social networks; what Oliver did yesterday was right, a foul within the penalty area is the same whether it happens during the first second of the match or its last minute.
The uncouth reaction of the Juventus players blinds those who have forgotten about the beating the Real Madrid gave them a week ago in their stadium, and if the Real Madrid is today in the semifinals it's because nobody has given them anything for free, and this is anything but a case for the National Audience or the anti-corruption committee. No, the common ground of the fans, and even of the journalists, is to discredit a team, loved or hated, based on their complexes.
Without a doubt, Juventus deserves a special mention because few can gain that much ground on the best football club of all times and do what they did, with the collaboration of Costa Rican Keylor Navas , who opened a panorama, unimaginable even for the more adamant followers of the Turin team. However, after the mistake of Navas in that third goal, the mistake of Massimiliano Allegri was his lack of ambition, as he decided, upon seeing stoppage time getting closer, to take more precautions. Surely, the pressure of scoring as a visitor during the last 30 minutes of this qualifying match would have proved fatal for the team in white.
The Real Madrid and the Barcelona have become teams capable of truly drawing attention anywhere in the world. Their penetration has led them to become the most-followed teams by social media everywhere and, because of this, the penalty has been a source of debate and has even been turned into a trending topic in all social networks possible. This is the relevance of these teams – they don't belong to Spain or Europe anymore, they belong to the whole world now.
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