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Beth Lindop
Atlético Madrid boss Diego Simeone has claimed he was “fighting back” against insults from supporters before he was shown a red card in his team’s 3-2 defeat in its Champions League opener against Liverpool at Anfield.
Simeone was dismissed in stoppage time after Virgil van Dijk scored a winner for the hosts in front of the Kop.
The Atlético manager appeared to get caught up in an altercation with Liverpool supporters on the sideline before stewards tried to wrestle control of the situation and then Simeone was sent off by referee Maurizio Mariani.
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Simeone said he responded to provocation from the crowd. It sparked a scuffle on the sideline with stewards and members of Atlético’s coaching team all caught up in the fracas. TV footage showed Simeone confront a fan in the crowd and stewards going over to calm the situation down.
Addressing the situation in his postmatch news conference, Simeone said: “Let’s talk about what refers to me. We are in a place where we don’t have a right to reply or react, do we? It’s never very good when we react as managers, is it?
“We are the people on the stage out there and need to behave well. But if there are comments against racism or insults, we can get angry and fight back as well, managers, from the place that we are to how we are getting insulted all of the game. When they scored the third goal, he turned around and insulted me, when I turned around, I am a person and I’m human.”
He added: “I’m not going to get into the exact nature of the insults. I don’t want to get involved with that; I don’t want that discussion. I have got to stay in my place. I know what went on behind the manager’s bench. I can’t solve society’s problems in one press conference. I’ve got to live with it because it exists all over the place all of the time.”
There were furious scenes at the end of the game at Anfield after Atlético had fought back from 2-0 down and then conceded in the second minute of added time to lose the match.
Liverpool coach Arne Slot said he was unaware of what happened.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
