Premier League leaders Liverpool suffered a 1-0 first-leg defeat to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Jurgen Klopp’s withering comments about Atletico Madrid’s display of dark arts didn’t go down well at the Wanda Metropolitano with ESPN reporting that Diego Simeone’s squad have been left seething by the Liverpool boss.
A tumble here, a clip of the heels there; it’s fair to say Atleti showed both the good and the bad sides of their game during Tuesday’s 1-0 Champions League first-leg victory against the current kings of Europe.
There is arguably no team on the continent who mirror their manager more than the Rojiblancos do and Liverpool must have felt like they were playing against ten Simeones in midweek, with Atletico resorting to some rather unseemly tactics at times.
Klopp claimed after the game that he was forced to sub Sadio Mane off at half-time to avoid the Senegalese star being hoodwinked into picking up a second yellow card, while Andy Robertson and Virgil van Dijk also sounded less than enamoured by the hosts’ approach in their post-match interviews.
“I was afraid that his opponent would go down if Sadio only took a deep breath. After 30 minutes, three Atletico players were on the ground, not even injured,” Klopp said.
According to ESPN, the usually affable German left Atletico’s dressing room stunned with his criticism, many players feeling that Klopp should devote more time to figuring out why Liverpool’s winning machine malfunctioned in Madrid rather than take pot shots at the Spanish giants.
Then again, Klopp surely would have known what to expect from a side who take the ‘win at all costs’ mantra to a whole new level. Atletico have been toeing the line for years now.
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