Manchester City's time-wasting and play-acting provoked Atletico Madrid in their fiery Champions League encounter, their captain Koke claims.
City were defending a 1-0 lead at the Wanda Metropolitano, with Atletico getting increasingly frustrated throughout the game as they failed to find an aggregate equaliser. The Blues showed a streetwise quality in the frantic closing stages, running down the clock and adopting the very same tactics Atletico had used for the majority of the tie.
And that was enough to 'take the match into madness', Atleti skipper Koke said after the game, blaming City for scenes where players clashed on the pitch and then in the tunnel after the game.
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"The match takes you to that madness when you see that you have chances and they drop to the ground and waste time," Koke said, arguing that it was City who were guilty of supposed 'anti-football' tactics.
"Many times we are criticised for this situation, but today it was them. Let's see what people think of this. Today it has been seen, we are Atletico de Madrid and I am proud of this team.
"I'm proud of my team-mates for the effort. I have nothing to reproach the team with. I'm proud of everyone and the fans, who have lost, stayed to applaud us after the game. This is Atletico."
Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak was more reflective of the football on show across the two legs, saying: "What a shame not to go through. It's painful. I really think we had a good game. We deserved a better result.
"We gave our all, we might have won. In the first match they were much better than us – in this game we were much better. Across the two matches we had more goal chances than them but it wasn't sufficient. The support from our fans was incredible. They helped us hugely.
"I'm left wondering what we might have achieved if we'd made it to an extra 30 minutes. There's nothing to reproach ourselves for. We gave it our all. If we play to tonight's level from now on, we'll do well."
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