Manchester City advanced to the semi-finals of Champions League with a 1-0 aggregate win over Atletico Madrid.
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Diego Simeone hits out at Pep Guardiola after he felt the Manchester City boss had looked down on his side despite the Spaniard’s apparent warm praise for the Champions League rivals. After losing the first leg at Etihad stadium 1-0, Atletico Madrid needed to secure a victory at home to advance to the final four, but a goalless draw at Wanda Metropolitano meant the Premier League side booked a meeting with Real Madrid.
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— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) April 13, 2022
It was a hard-fought encounter in Madrid that saw both sides having a go at each other. Simeone’s side displayed a very physical game and tried to knock their opponents down but the visitors stood firm to secure the draw.
Meanwhile tensions boiled over in the closing stages and Atletico defender Feilpe was sent off after receiving two yellow cards before the teams played out 12 minutes of added time.
“I don’t have to give an opinion, whether someone speaks well of us or not,” Simeone told reporters. A lot of the time, those people who have a large vocabulary, who are very intelligent, they show contempt in their praise. But although we might not have such large vocabularies we are not that stupid.”
It all started after the first leg in Manchester where Kevin de Bruyne’s lone strike helped the Premier League side to get the better of their opponents. In that match, Simeone resorted to an ultra-defensive game plan, trying to secure a draw away from home and didn’t register even a single shot on target.
Guardiola wasn’t very happy with Atletico’s tactics in the first leg, and he said “In prehistory, for the last 100,000 years and today attacking against five [defenders] and five [midfielders] is very difficult, There is no space. They are very competitive and defend very well.”
Speaking on Wednesday, after the 0-0 draw, Guardiola insisted he had nothing but respect for Simeone’s charges.
“Make no mistake, I did not criticise Atletico,” he asserted.
