UCL: Why There Was ‘Madness’ During Our Match- Atletico Madrid
Captain Atletico Madrid captain, Koke has attributed the ”madness” in Wednesday’s Champions League showdown to football counterparts, Manchester City.
The La Liga side took on English football rivals, Manchester City for a spot in the semi- finals at the fiery Champions League quarter-final second leg.
The controversial Wanda Metropolitano clash ended in favour of the Citizens who edged past Koke’s side on a 1-0 aggregate win, having won the first leg 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium last week.
Wednesday night’s pitched battle became nightmarish in its final scenes as Diego Simone’s boys took to mad displays to express their dissatisfaction with what they termed ” time-wasting” from their rivals.
The ”yellow game” significantly sparked reactions after eleven yellow cards were branded out, two of which went to defender, Felipe and one to coach Diego Simeone.
Felipe was shown a red card for an onslaught on City’s Phil Foden, the same player that drew blood from an elbow attack.
Horrifying scenes in the final eleven minutes translated to a streak of red card bookings.
Amid rising tensions from the feud, Koke has claimed that time-wasting and play-acting antics from Pep Guardiola’s side led to the violent resolve from his side.
Speaking in a post-match interview, the leading man said;
“The match takes you to that madness when you see that you have chances and they [Man City players] drop to the ground and waste time,
Many times we are criticised for this situation, but today it was them. Let’s see what people think of this. Today it has been seen, we are Atletico de Madrid and I am proud of this team.
“I am proud of my team-mates for their effort. I have nothing to reproach the team with. I’m proud of everyone and the fans, who have lost, stayed to applaud us after the game. This is Atletico.”