Diego Simeone feels disrespected by Pep Guardiola after Champions League ties

Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone says he felt disrespected by Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola after their Champions League quarter-final tie.

City advanced to the semi-finals of the competition, where they will face Real Madrid. Kevin De Bruyne’s second half strike in the first leg at the Etihad Stadium was enough for the Premier League outfit to go through. Atlético had chances to take the game to extra time but it wasn’t to be for the La Liga side.

After the match in Madrid, Simeone discussed Guardiola’s assessment of Atlético’s conservative approach.

“I have no reason to give my opinion about what someone else says, good or bad,” the Argentine said on Wednesday.

“Those who have a great lexicon are very intelligent and they praise you with contempt. Those of us who perhaps have less lexicon are not so stupid,” he added.

Guardiola admits it’s tough against Atlético

Guardiola insisted he had not criticised Atlético.

“Don’t tell me,” the City boss replied. “I have always had good words of praise for this club and for this team. Cholo can play how he wants, obviously. I’ve said I appreciate it and you saw it here.”

Guardiola then discussed the difficulties of playing a team who approach the game like Atleti.

“They did what they do very well,” he said. “It’s been like this here before, it was like this tonight and it will be like this for goodness knows how long.

“They’re a team that knows how to play this way like no one else in the world.

“They pushed us a lot, they were excellent in the second half, we forgot to play and we were in big, big trouble.

“We cannot play all the time and score 4 or 5 goals. We are human beings. We played a difficult game against Liverpool three days ago.

“We played 180 minutes (against Atlético), in the last 45 minutes, they were better.”

Simeone pleased with effort of his team

Simeone also refused to discuss Manchester City’s apparent time-wasting at the Wanda Metropolitano.

“I think that football has a lot of different dimensions and I’m not going to comment on how Manchester City behaved,” Simeone responded.

“It is you [the media] who are very capable, you see everything very clinically and obviously you always express an opinion, because football is full of opinions, but we keep ours to ourselves.

“I think playing against possibly the best team in the world and showing that we were able to compete very well doesn’t leave me feeling okay, it doesn’t leave me feeling happy at all, because the only thing that leaves me happy is winning.

“I feel f***ed, but it gives me the peace of mind that when I go to bed I will say that today my father, Luis Aragonés and those who passed away in the pandemic will have seen from above their team continues to compete extremely well.”