The heated mood after the tough quarter-final second leg of the Champions League between Atletico Madrid and Manchester City (0-0) did not cool down long after the final whistle. Even the police had to intervene in the Wanda Metropolitano tunnel after the English soccer champions around coach Pep Guardiola had saved the 1-0 lead from the first duel over time. Real Madrid are now waiting with David Alaba in the semifinals.
As could be seen on TV pictures, the pros from ManCity and Atletico still had a lot to say to each other in the catacombs. Atletico defender Sime Vrsaljko even threw a plastic bottle at a City player. The “Daily Mail” wrote about the “chaos of Madrid”, the Mirror titled “Crazy, evil and dangerous”. The angry players had to be separated from supervisors and police officers.
“It had something of a fair situation,” Sky expert Marc Janko described the scenes. ServusTV colleague Jan Age Fjörtoft compared the protagonists to “gladiators”.
“Entangled in absurd fights”
The reason for the escalation on the part of the Spaniards was alleged time wasting by ManCity in the final phase of the game. Referee Daniel Siebert blew the whistle after 13 minutes of stoppage time, previously Atletico defender Felipe had been sent off after a frustrating foul on Phil Foden with the “traffic light card” (90 + 2). Stefan Savic (Atletico) deserved a straight red for pulling Jack Grealish’s hair. It was difficult to keep track of the tumult on the sideline.
Already during the game there were pack formations. “They were the ones who wasted time getting involved in absurd fights,” said City defender Aymeric Laporte.
Midfielder Rodri admitted: “When you’re tied at the back and there’s only five to ten minutes left, we have to play with other weapons.”
An angry Guardiola declined to answer questions about wasting time, instead praising Diego Simeone’s performance. “They left us with our backs to the wall. It was as if we had forgotten how to play. But that was their credit,” said the coach.
Guardiola paid “great respect”, he had “never criticized” Atletico’s game and “what Diego Simeone does, he can do like no other in the world”. However, the Atletico coach was not convinced by Guardiola’s praise. “Very intelligent people can despise you with words of praise. But we, who have less good vocabularies, are not stupid,” Simeone said.
Guardiola is looking forward to the semi-final duel with the record winner of the “premier class”, Real (13 titles), in two weeks. “They are the Champions League kings,” said the Catalan.
Liverpool qualified for the round of four with attacking football (3-1 and 3-3 against Benfica). “If the day comes that my team qualifies for the semi-finals and I’m not happy, then please smack me,” said coach Jürgen Klopp. Now the duels with Villarreal are waiting.
Source: Nachrichten
