Atletico de Madrid players are infuriated with claims from Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp that they were diving and playacting during their Champions League clash.
Saul Niguez decided the first leg of their Round of 16 tie in the fourth minute at the Wanda Metropolitano on Tuesday night, with the visiting side failing to even record a shot on target during the encounter.
A report in ESPN now claims that Atleti’s players have been enraged with comments from the Liverpool manager, which accused them of trying to get forward Sadio Mane sent-off during the clash.
“It’s part of football, I don’t like it,” Klopp said in his postmatch news conference, as cited by the report.
“The plan was to get Sadio out of the game with a yellow card.
“I was afraid that his opponent would go down if Sadio only took a deep breath. After 30 minutes, three Atletico players were on the ground, not even injured.”
The report continues that players from Los Rojiblancos believe that this is a case of sour grapes from the German coach, which come out of frustration at his team’s defeat.
Liverpool were strong favourites going into the encounter as they are the tournament holders and have collected a remarkable 103 points from the last 105 available in the Premier League.
Diego Simeone’s side had just one win in their last seven domestically and celebrated their best performance and result of the campaign to date, which again angered Klopp.
“They got a result, the stadium wasn’t here to see sensational football, they got the result and so they are happy,” Klopp added. “There are a lot of happy faces tonight from Atletico.
“It’s only 1-0, we’re not 5-0 down. We don’t think it will be easy at our ground. For all Atletico fans who can get a ticket for the game, welcome to Anfield.”
