There was little to separate Atletico Madrid on the pitch last night as they fell to defeat against Manchester City. According to Atletico captain Koke Resurreccion, even the styles of football were similar by the end.
Tensions got the better of both sets of players by the end, with Stefan Savic and Phil Foden instigating a mass maul of shoving and pushing at the end of the match. The insults and the anger continued after the final whistle too, with several players taking their grievances down the tunnel.
Speaking to Movistar after the match, Koke highlighted what he perceives as hypocrisy amongst the football media regarding the way football is played.
“The ones who opine are yourselves. Many times they have labelled us as time-wasters, as anti-football… Today you can have your say about what happened on the pitch,” he remarked pointedly in quotes reported by Mundo Deportivo.
He then went on to accuse City of [throwing] “themselves to the ground, wasting time, let’s see what the people think today.”
In terms of the match itself, Koke seemed happy with his team’s efforts despite the defeat.
“In the end we were missing the goal and it’s about scoring goals. We knew before we started the tie what we were going to do, how we were going to work it, and it always came off perfectly.”
“In the end, you are always criticised but we go away proud. Our people are proud. We wanted to go through but obviously it couldn’t be.”
