Director Diego Simeone was furious.
Atletico Madrid lost 1-3 to Lille in the third round of the UEFA Champions League phase (group league) of the 2024-25 season at Civitas Metropolitano in Madrid, Spain, at 4 a.m. on the 24th (Korea time).
Atletico went first. Julián Álvarez, who seized the ball under strong pressure, scored the first goal with a clean right footed shot in the eighth minute of the first half. No additional goal was scored afterwards, but the offensive continued throughout the first half.
When the score was tied 1-0, Lille balanced the match. In the 16th minute of the second half, Edon Zegrova, who received a pass from Thomas Meunier from outside the box, balanced the match with a fantastic left-footed shot. In a hurry, Atletico immediately stepped up their attack by removing Alexander Seurlott and sending in Angel Correa.
Rather, the kick started to collapse rapidly. At 26 minutes in the second half, Koke’s handball foul was declared for free kick. Jonathan David, who was the kicker, neatly finished it off, and succeeded in turning the tables. In the final minutes of the match, David scored a net goal, and the game ended with a win of one to three reel.
The defeat put Atletico on the verge of securing two consecutive UCL titles and advancing to the tournament. It was a defeat that left unfairness. The PK declared in the come-from-behind goal scene was clearly a misjudgment. Referee Marco Guida, who oversaw the match, declared the PK after mistaking the ball hit by Benjamin Andre’s arm for Koke in a free kick situation. Coach Simeone and Atletico’s coaching staff strongly protested the decision, but they did not even conduct VAR and issued a warning. 스포츠토토
After the match, Simeone expressed strong anger. Simeone said, “Nothing happened. Why did the referee blow the whistle? He said it was a handball foul and then he said it was a pushing foul again. Someone at UEFA has to tell me that VAR did not intervene. As a result, the match was 1-2, and again, bad luck overlapped and my performance deteriorated.”