Mikel Arteta expressed his fury after the referee’s decision to rescind a penalty awarded to Eberechi Eze, describing the reversal as "completely unacceptable". The incident occurred during the first leg of Arsenal's Champions League semi‑final against Atletico Madrid, a match that ultimately ended in a 1‑1 stalemate. In the 78th minute, substitute Eze found himself in the box and was brought down by Atletico defender David Hancko. The contact appeared to be a clear foot‑on‑foot challenge, and Arsenal seemed poised to regain the lead through a spot‑kick.
However, the VAR team intervened, prompting referee Danny Makkelie to consult the monitor. After reviewing several replays, Makkelie withdrew the penalty he had initially signalled, allowing the game to finish level.
The decision set the stage for a decisive second leg at the Emirates Stadium the following Tuesday. Speaking to TNT Sports immediately after the match, Arteta delivered a scathing assessment of the VAR intervention. "When we got back to the dressing room and I replayed the incident with the lads, it was extremely disappointing and frustrating. The rule was broken and it changes the course of the tie," he said.
"I’m very, very upset." He continued, "The whole sequence shows clear contact. You make a call, you don’t overturn it after looking at it thirteen times.
It’s completely unacceptable at this level. It was the wrong decision." Mid‑fielder Declan Rice echoed Arteta’s anger, insisting that Arsenal should have been awarded a "clear" penalty and suggesting that the referee was "provoked" by the crowd to change his mind.
Rice noted the intense atmosphere at the Metropolitano, where roughly 70,000 Atletico supporters were chanting, and claimed that the vocal reaction may have influenced the official’s reversal. "It’s a clear penalty and I don’t understand why it wasn’t given," Rice said. "I think the fans provoked the decision and changed the referee’s mind. UEFA operates differently from the Premier League – you have to be extremely careful in both boxes because they give everything." UEFA later issued a brief statement on its website, explaining the VAR decision: "Atleti player, No 17, did not commit a foul on the opponent." The governing body declined to elaborate further when Sky Sports News sought clarification about the process that led to the penalty being overturned.
UEFA reiterated that VAR is meant to intervene only in "clear and obvious mistakes" during match‑changing moments. When asked whether Arsenal would lodge a formal protest with UEFA, Arteta replied, "I leave that to the club to decide what’s the best thing to do. They’re not going to give us a penalty now. That’s it.
It’s gone." The match itself was heavily defined by penalty incidents. Arsenal had taken the lead at halftime through a spot‑kick converted by Viktor Gyökeres after a separate clash involving Hancko, who again was involved in a challenge that saw the striker brought down from behind. Atletico equalised in the second half when Julian Álvarez converted a penalty after VAR identified a handball by Ben White, who inadvertently deflected Marcos Llorente’s shot with his hand after the ball struck his knee. Arteta acknowledged that the interpretation of handball in the Champions League differs from that in the Premier League.
"They have been consistent with that," he said. "If you are going to give a penalty for this kind of thing you have to accept it." The controversy surrounding the handball call against White echoed another high‑profile decision in the other semi‑final, where Alphonso Davies was penalised for a handball in Paris Saint‑Germain’s victory over Bayern Munich. Sky Sports analyst Jamie Carragher took to X (formerly Twitter) to call on UEFA to clarify the handball definition used in the Champions League, describing the penalty rulings as a "stain on the competition". Reflecting on his squad’s overall performance in Madrid, Arteta praised his players’ resilience.
"I’m very proud – I told the boys how remarkable they’ve handled the context for nine and a half months," he said. "I value what they’ve done because I’ve seen some of the best teams in the world collapse and concede three or four goals." He admitted the result was not what Arsenal wanted, but remained optimistic about the upcoming second leg.
"We didn’t get the result we wanted, and the way we planned the game, we wanted to win it. At least it’s in our hands, in front of our people.
We want to be in that final and in a week’s time we will have the opportunity to do so," Arteta concluded. The incident has reignited debate over VAR’s role and the consistency of handball rulings across Europe’s top competitions, with many fans and pundits calling for clearer guidelines to prevent similar controversies in future high‑stakes matches.