Diego Simeone believes Arsenal's penalty against Atletico Madrid should have been overturned, suggesting that Viktor Gyokeres dived to win the foul.
It was a tale of three penalties in a controversial Champions League semi-final first leg at the Metropolitano Stadium, two given and one overturned.
Gyokeres gave Arsenal the lead from the spot in the final minute of the first half, after appearing to be pushed over by David Hancko, before Julian Alvarez levelled it up after the break when Ben White was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area.
Arsenal won a second penalty 10 minutes from time, when Hancko again was deemed to be the guilty party as Eberechi Eze went down under a challenge. However, this time, VAR overturned the decision.
Must has been made of the third penalty decision, with Mikel Arteta branding it "unacceptable", but it was the first which Simeone was keen to rail against after the 1-1 draw.
"The first penalty, in my opinion, there is contact from behind, the player waits for the contact and goes down," he told reporters.
"In a Champions League semi-final, you need a penalty that is really a penalty. The referee felt it was.
"In the other incident [the referee] felt, thanks to VAR, that it was a penalty, because first it wasn’t [deemed] handball, and then, in the second one, also thanks to VAR, that it wasn’t a penalty.
"VAR sometimes gives to you and sometimes takes away."
Atletico will head to London next week for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final.
