Brian Kerr slammed Atletico Madrid as 'gougers' following their performance against Manchester City on Wednesday night.
In a cagey affair, the game was marred by ugly scenes as Felipe Luis was sent off for kicking out at Manchester City's Phil Foden late in the second half.
The kick sparked a massive brawl as former City centre back Stefan Savic appeared to pull Jack Grealish's hair amid the chaos.
Read more: 16 years ago, Steve Staunton was appointed Ireland manager - what went wrong?
And after Manchester City hung on to draw 0-0 and qualify with a 1-0 aggregate victory, the scenes spilled into the tunnel after the game.
And Kerr, appearing on Virgin Media's Champions League coverage, was not one bit impressed by Atletico Madrid and manager Diego Simeone.
He said: “I’m sick of it… They play like gougers. They play like gougers a lot of the time these fellas. Then they’re apologising and the manager on the sideline helping it and almost kind of inciting it, I’d say. It’s not nice.
“I don’t admire them. I hate the whole package of them now. I’m sick of them. You can like them, but I don’t like them. I used to like them and now I don’t like them.
“I look at [Antoine] Greizmann and Felix and they’re two of the best attacking players in the world. What they’re doing in that team, they’ve become just part of the overall package of scrap, bite, incite, fight, I just don’t like that.
“They’ve got that ability so I’ve no more sympathy for the manager, his style and the way he puts his team out to play on a consistent basis.”
Manchester City will now face Real Madrid in the semi-finals as the club hope to win their first Champions League title.
Liverpool will also appear in the other semi-final against Villareal as they played out a thrilling 3-3 draw against Benfica as they qualified 6-4 on aggregate.
Read more: St Patrick's Athletic and Michael Owen team up to launch talent search in Pakistan
Read more: Brian Kerr questions Darren Fletcher's role as Manchester United 'mess' plods on in Villarreal
