Diego Simeone refused to blame Atletico Madrid’s Champions League semifinal exit on the referee’s failure to award them a second-half penalty in their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Referee Daniel Siebert waved away Atlético’s appeals for a foul by Riccardo Calafiori on Antoine Griezmann in the 56th minute at the Emirates, and instead handed Arsenal a free kick for Marc Pubill’s challenge on Gabriel seconds earlier.
Bukayo Saka’s goal before halftime gave Arsenal a 2-1 aggregate win to progress to the final in Budapest, where they’ll face either Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich.
“I won’t focus on something simple like the Griezmann incident,” Simeone said in his postmatch news conference. “It’s obvious, it was a foul. The referee said there was a foul by Marc [Pubill] on one of their players.
“I won’t focus on that. It would be an excuse, and I don’t want to make excuses.”
Diego Simeone after their sides defeat to Arsenal. (Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images)
Simeone said he felt “peace” and “calm” after his team had “given absolutely everything they had” over the two legs.
“We got to a place nobody imagined, competing with a team with incredible power,” Simeone said. “I feel proud to be where I am. In preseason, when the team was presented, I said we’d compete. And we competed. Unfortunately we haven’t won anything, but we’ve gotten to places it isn’t easy to get to.”
Despite looking like they’ll win a trophy this season, Atletico will end the season without a trophy having also lost the Copa del Rey final, and trailing well behind Barcelona and Real Madrid in LaLiga.
However, Simeone praised his team’s campaign in Europe, which saw them eliminate Hansi Flick’s Barcelona in the quarterfinals.
“We’ve grown enormously in every aspect, we’re a club recognised in Europe and the world,” Simeone said. “But the fans want to win. Getting to a semifinal isn’t enough.”
