The suspense at its height, an overexcited public, players under tension... The end of the match between Atlético Madrid and Manchester City turned out to be electric on Wednesday evening in the Wanda Metropolitano of Madrid full to bursting.
The English, winners in the first leg (1-0), snatched the draw (0-0), pocketing their qualification for the semi-finals where they will face Real Madrid but the outcome was enamelled with numerous clashes and overflows .
Manchester City defender John Stones also regretted the “hostile” environment created by Madrid players.
“We knew it wasn't an easy place to be, it's a hostile environment, it's been a tough night around us and the way we defended and controlled each other was amazing,” he explained.
At the end of the game, a general fight broke out following a bad gesture by Felipe on Phil Foden, earning the Colchoneros player a red card and involving several players and staff members.
Montenegrin Stefan Savic, in particular, received a yellow card and struggled to get angry after the match, continuing to shout at members of the Mancunian delegation in the tunnel leading to the locker room, according to images broadcast by RMC Sport.
Felipe completely beside himself after his expulsion!
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#ATLMCI |
#UCL |
#CCC▶️ https://t.co/IH2nOcYw4F pic.twitter.com/l1bcMdo12m
— Canal Football Club (@CanalFootClub) April 13, 2022
Other players, including Sime Vrsaljko, Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker, had to be controlled by their teammates, close to coming to blows.
The police even intervened in the tunnel to separate the actors who were a little too hot.
"We know they try to do things like that sometimes and we handled that well," Stones said.
We kept our cool, it's easy to get sucked into things like that.
I don't want to dwell on that because in both sets we played incredibly against a team with experience in what they do.
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“I'm proud of this team, because they fight.
We have our way of playing, good or bad, but we fight, ”said Diego Simeone, Atlético's Argentinian technician at the final whistle.
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola refused to discuss the scuffles.
"They pushed us to our limits," he said.
They were excellent in the second half.
We forgot to play and it almost cost us dearly.
We couldn't expect that in the Champions League, against the reigning Spanish champions, everything was going to be wonderful.
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