For viewers who were unfortunately drowsy in front of Atlético-City (0-0) on Wednesday evening, the last stormy minutes of play at the end of the match in this quarter-final second leg of the Champions League (qualification of the Citizens, winners 1-0 at the to go, who will face Real Madrid in the semi-finals) had the merit of causing a slight start in front of the television.
The rest was of the same ilk when accompanying the actors from the lawn to the tunnel, to join the locker room.
A sequence that ended in a scuffle with scenes sometimes (un)worthy of a Sunday amateur match.
A palpable tension, players under pressure, add to that the feeling of injustice, disappointment or resentment and the
post-match between the Colchoneros and the Citizens almost turned into a fight in the spans of the Wanda Metropolitano.
For a sad sight.
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Police intervention to calm both sides
Already at the end of the match, a general fight had broken out following a bad gesture by Felipe on Phil Foden, earning a red card for the Colchoneros player and involving several players and staff members.
Montenegrin Stefan Savic, in particular, had received a yellow card and struggled to get angry after the meeting, continuing to shout at members of the Mancunian delegation in the tunnel leading to the locker room, according to images broadcast by
RMC Sport
.
Other players, including Sime Vrsaljko, Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker, had to be checked by their teammates, close to coming to blows, according to these images.
The police even had to intervene in the tunnel.
Ridiculous.
Chaotic end to the match between Atlético Madrid and Manchester City on Wednesday evening in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League.
OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP
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“We know they try to do things like that sometimes and we handled it well
,” commented John Stones once the situation calmed down.
"
We kept our calm, it's easy to be dragged into things like that
(...)
I don't want to dwell on it because in both legs we played incredibly against a team with experience in this what she does
."
An opinion necessarily not shared by the Madrid clan, annoyed by certain attitudes of Mancunians on and off the field.
Asked about the tense scenes on and off the pitch, Diego Simeone preferred to retain the positive and the face revealed by his troops, not far from a feat against the Premier League leader.
“
I am proud of this Atlético team, because they are fighting
, admits “El Cholo”.
We
have our way of playing, good or bad, but we fight.
Football has many facets, I'm not going to judge the opponent's way of playing.
We played with our weapons, against what is possibly the best team in the world
.
Chaotic end to the match between Atlético Madrid and Manchester City on Wednesday evening in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League.
OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP
