Spanish police were caught up in a chaotic ending to the Champions League quarterfinal between Manchester City and Atletico Madrid on Thursday morning (AEST).
English champions City advanced to the semifinals after the goal-less draw after winning the first leg 1-0 in Manchester.
But while there were no goals there was no shortage of drama as players clashed both during the game and after it.
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“It’s gone off in the tunnel,” award-winning broadcaster Mark Pougatch reported on Stan Sport from Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
“(Raheem) Sterling looked really irritated… you could see four or five cops running down the tunnel… It was (Stefan) Savic kicking off in the tunnel, a former Manchester City player who pulled Jack Grealish’s hair.”
The tunnel skirmish followed Atletico star Felipe’s red card late in the match for lashing out at City’s Phil Foden, who was targeted physically by Diego Simeone’s home side, who are notorious for pushing ‘gamesmanship’ and theatrics to their utter limits.
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“You are half utterly appalled… with all these villains out there you can’t take your eyes off it,” Pougatch said.
Former Socceroos stars Mark Bosnich and Craig Foster said Atletico’s antics had overshadowed their football abilities.
“Upsetting people, kicking people and winding them up,” Bosnich said.
Stan Sport host Max Rushden described the last 15 minutes as “chaos.”
“The real stupidity of Felipe is they had City on the ropes.”
City will play Real Madrid in the semifinals as they try to win Europe’s top club competition for the first time.
In the end, it was Pep Guardiola getting the best of Simeone in the battle of styles between City’s offensive-minded tactics and Atletico’s more cautious approach.
Atletico’s attack struggled again and the Spanish club managed only two attempts on target after having none in the first leg.
The benches had been cleared before Felipe’s red card as Atletico’s players appeared upset with City’s attempt to waste time.
In the other quarterfinal, Liverpool advanced past Benfica to set up a semifinal against Villarreal, the modest Spanish club that eliminated Bayern Munich.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp opted to rest stars like Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and saw his backups play out a wild 3-3 draw with Benfica in the second leg to wrap up a 6-4 aggregate win.
Ibrahima Konate, one of the scorers in Liverpool’s 3-1 win in the first leg, netted another header for Klopp’s team for the first goal and Roberto Firmino added two more in the second half at Anfield.
Goncalo Ramos had made it 1-1 on the night in the 32nd minute — keeping Benfica in with the unlikeliest of chances — but Liverpool never looked like squandering its big advantage, even though substitute Roman Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez scored goals for the visitors in the 73rd and 82nd minutes, respectively.
Liverpool stayed on course to win the competition for a seventh time, and for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies this season.
That Klopp was able to rotate so heavily after building a commanding lead in Lisbon last week should enable Liverpool to field a full-strength team against Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinals this weekend
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