Arteta on Madueke penalty claim: I watched all Champions League penalties in last 72 hours, that could ‘easily’ be given

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said that he studied every penalty awarded in the competition across the last three days “to understand what is a penalty and what is not.”

This comes after Arsenal were denied a penalty in the Champions League final defeat against Paris Saint-Germain. In the 11th minute of extra time, Arsenal winger Noni Madueke got in front of PSG’s Nuno Mendes and went to ground after tussling with the Portuguese left-back.

Arteta and the Arsenal players appealed for a penalty though their claims were waved away by German referee Daniel Siebert, and the decision was not overturned by video assistant referees Bastian Dankert and Robert Schroder.

Declan Rice, who captained Arsenal to the end of the match after Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka were substituted, received a yellow card for his protests, while Arteta was visibly frustrated on the touchline.

Extra time ended with the score at 1-1, after goals by Kai Havertz and Ousmane Dembele, with PSG going on to retain the Champions League with a 4-3 victory on penalties.

After the match, Rice told TNT Sports: “I was gutted at the time because I thought the ref would go and have a look (at a replay on the pitchside monitor), but it was obviously not clear enough to be a penalty. I thought it was and so did our bench and our players.”

Arteta was asked about the incident after the game.

In his post-match press conference, the Spaniard said: “I watched all penalties in the competition in the last 72 hours to understand what is a penalty and what is not, and that easily can be a penalty.”

“I’ve watched it back and it could easily be a penalty especially when you see the penalties that they have given in the competition this season,” he also told TNT Sports.

“The referee has made that decision, he made a different one on the penalty with Mosquera and that’s an important one.”

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Should the challenge on Madueke have been a penalty?

Analysis by former Premier League referee Graham Scott

Arsenal will feel aggrieved that Madueke did not win a penalty during the first half of extra time. It’s a clumsy challenge by Mendes, and his guilty look towards the referee tells us that he feared the worst.

I watched the PSG defender’s actions all through the challenge, and some angles suggested he had committed an offence, others didn’t. While the players were locking arms, they are both competing for space, but all the contact looks well within acceptable thresholds.

Once the referee — presumably with some input from his assistant — decided to play on, Arsenal’s chances of winning a penalty were gone, because I cannot imagine any VAR would view those replays and recommend his colleague take another look. It simply is not an obvious error.

A closer look at that Noni Madueke penalty shout 🔎😳

Jack Wilshere and Martin Keown give their verdict…

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Arsenal could point to the referee’s relatively low tolerance of physical contact elsewhere on the pitch, which led to a succession of free kicks being awarded against them, especially in the second half. Fair enough.

But like it or not, the threshold for penalising potential offences in the penalty area is much higher. I think that’s only right, given the sanction.

There will be plenty of comments along the line of ‘I’ve seen them given’, and I doubt a VAR would have seen enough to overturn a penalty had one been awarded.

But ultimately, I would rather defend the referee for keeping out of this one than try to build a defence had he succumbed to pressure and pointed to the spot.