Atlético say ‘no excuses’ after bowing out to Arsenal in UCL

Diego Simeone refused to blame Atlético 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.”

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.”

Atlético 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 — but Simeone praised his team’s campaign in Europe, which saw them eliminate Barça 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.”