Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo has called Manchester City a 'completely defensive team' that displayed more 'prehistoric' tactics than the Spaniards in their Champions League quarter-final.
A tense quarter-final was edged 1-0 by City over two legs, with Atletico playing the entire first leg with two banks of five and failing to have a single effort on goal. They were more adventurous in the second leg, but City stood firm and progressed to the semi-finals.
However, senior Atletico figures have reacted badly to the defeat, criticising City's time-wasting and their role in the altercations between the sides at the end of the game. In particular, Atletico were riled by a throwaway pre-match comment from Pep Guardiola about 'prehistory' and now their president has accused the City manager of being more negative than his side in the second leg.
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After the first game, Guardiola had said that playing against a 5-5-0 formation had been difficult 'since prehistory', but Atletico figures including captain Koke and manager Diego Simeone took that to mean he was calling their tactics prehistoric.
Despite there clearly being no offence meant, the comments have dominated the build-up and reaction to the second leg, with Cerezo now getting involved with some pointed comments towards Guardiola.
He told Radio Marca : "We are a team that has a lot of category so that someone can offend us and in the end it has been shown that they all have their prehistory.
"We played a good game, attacking and yesterday City played prehistoric times, defending themselves and putting up a wall in front of their goal so that they didn't score a goal.
"Everyone has seen it. City was a completely defensive team. In the second half they shot once on goal. Yesterday it was shown that each one has its prehistory."
Cerezo added that he felt Atletico did enough to progress in the tie, and gave his backing to manager Someone.
"It was a match that, with a bit of luck, would have taken us to the semi-finals," he argued. We were not lucky enough to score a goal and reach extra time.
"In the sporting and human aspect, Simeone cannot be criticized. He knows how to be in all situations. He is going to continue with us, there is his story, he is a winner and he will be with us as long as he wants."
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