Atletico Madrid ‘livid’ at Arsenal’s ‘underhand ways’ and poor participant behaviour
Atletico Madrid have been left ‘furious’ by the behaviour of Arsenal’s players and the officials following their Champions League semi-final defeat
Diego Simeone’s side were furious at Arsenal(Image: Vince Mignott/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)
Atletico Madrid have been left furious with the behaviour of Arsenal’s players and the officials following the Champions League semi-final.
Diego Simeone’s men were knocked out of the tournament in unsavoury fashion after he was involved in an altercation on the sideline deep into injury time with Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta and members of the coaching staff.
Following the controversial 1-1 draw in Madrid last week, Bukayo Saka’s first-half goal was enough to secure Arsenal their first Champions League final of the Emirates era against an Atletico team who looked like they would fail to score even if they played all night.
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At the full-time whistle, Arsenal’s players and staff flooded onto the pitch to celebrate as fireworks were set off above the stadium.
Meanwhile, AS reports that Simeone was left furious after feeling aggrieved since landing on English soil after fireworks were set off outside the club hotel, which the club contemplated lodging a complaint to UEFA about.
The visitors were also left furious with the choice of the officiating team. According to the publication, the appointment of Daniel Siebert as referee and Bastian Dankert on VAR outraged the club with the former having overseen three Atletico matches against English team, all of which saw no wins, while the latter officiated their last two Champions League exits, now a hat-trick.
Arsenal are claimed to have deployed underhand tactics that angered the Madrid side as the visitors travelled to the stadium without an escort.
Atleti also took issue with the behaviour of Arsenal’s players during injury time, which saw Gabriel Martinelli appear to delay a restart by throwing a ball into the crowd before substitute goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga booted it away again when it was thrown back.
Three penalty decisions also went against Simeone’s side. The first saw Riccardo Calafiori push Giuliano Simeone in the box which was instead overruled by the linesman’s flag for offside. However, Simeone Jnr took to Instagram to post a picture of him appearing to start his run from inside his own half when the ball was played.
Simeone again was not awarded a penalty when Gabriel’s defending stopped him tapping into an empty net – a challenge that VAR did not recommend a review for due to the light contact.
While Antoine Griezmann was also not adjudged to have been fouled by Calafiori after the Italian clearly stepped on his foot in the area. But a soft foul on Gabriel had been given in the build-up.
Speaking after the game, Simeone said: “I’m not going to dwell on something as simple and easy as the play involving Griezmann. It’s very obvious…
“I’m not going to dwell on it because that would be making excuses, and I don’t want to make excuses for anything.
“We continue with our work, without getting bogged down in a detail of something that’s so obvious. When the players give their all, when they compete, when we want to win, it’s just not enough.”
