Vale, perfecto: Cancelo penalti, the VAR review that denied Málaga a spot kick

Real Madrid handled Málaga with ease in a 4-0 win, but the scoreline did not stop VAR from stepping in during the late stages. At the 84th minute, referee Juan Martínez Munuera pointed to the spot for a handball by Diomande after a rebound off Rüdiger in a Málaga free kick. The VOR room recommended a review, and the final call turned out to be different.

• Martínez Munuera awarded a penalty in the 84th minute for a Diomande handball after a Rüdiger rebound.
• Daniel Trujillo Suárez from the VOR room advised him to check a possible penalty cancellation.
• The referee reviewed the play on the monitor and concluded that Rüdiger headed the ball toward Diomandé first.
• The final decision was to cancel the penalty in a play that barely changed Real Madrid's 4-0 win.

What happened in the 84th minute between Rüdiger and Diomande

The play that triggered the video review started with a Málaga free kick near the edge of Real Madrid's box. On the rebound, the ball struck Diomande's hand and Martínez Munuera immediately signaled a penalty. The action looked straightforward live, but the review changed the reading entirely: Rüdiger touched the ball with his head just before it hit the Ivorian defender.

The exchange between Martínez Munuera and the VOR room that overturned the penalty

The VAR audio shows the review process in detail. Daniel Trujillo Suárez, from the VOR room, addressed the referee from Valencia with a clear recommendation: check the play to analyze a possible cancellation of the penalty. Martínez Munuera walked to the monitor while the officials from Las Rozas showed him a replay of the jump and the first contact with the ball.

Vale es Rudiger, es Rudiger el que cabecea hacia Diomandé. Vale, perfecto. Cancelo penalti, cancelo penalti.

The conversation ended with the decision already made: the penalty was ruled out. The referee watched Rüdiger's movement on the monitor and understood there was no foul by Diomande in the sequence. The German defender's rebound proved decisive in dismissing the handball as punishable.

What the CTA manual says about this type of handball

The decision fits with the Technical Committee of Referees criteria for the season. The regulations state that a penalty should not be awarded when the ball touches a defender's separated arm after a rebound off another part of the body, off another player or off the ground, as long as it arrives unexpectedly and without a significant tactical impact.

Diomande's motion was interpreted as a natural protective reaction, with the arm very close to the body after the rebound. Under that reading, the infraction disappears entirely. The case is even weaker when the ball arrives right after a header from an opponent that changes its path in a fraction of a second.

VAR and a calm finish for Real Madrid

With the 4-0 already on the scoreboard, the 84th-minute play barely changed the course of the match. Real Madrid controlled the game and the review did not create any real tension in the closing minutes. The VAR intervention served to correct a decision that, after watching the replay, could not stand under the new refereeing manual.

The international referee from Valencia applied the protocol quickly and without contradictions. From the moment he reached the monitor until the penalty was cancelled, the process was clean. The communication with the VOR room reflects coordinated officiating and a reading consistent with what the CTA has requested for this kind of contact.

Why Diomande's penalty was overturned despite the clear handball

A frozen frame might suggest an obvious handball, but football is read in motion. The detail that changed everything was not Diomande's arm but Rüdiger's earlier header. That first touch turns the action into an unexpected rebound rather than a deliberate block by the Málaga defender.

The new CTA manual is blunt in these situations: without a significant tactical impact and with a trajectory altered by another player, the handball must not be punished. That is why the final call was to cancel the spot kick and restart play with Real Madrid already in total control of the scoreboard.