Atletico Madrid and manager Simeone suffered their heaviest defeat in the Champions League, as German Bundesliga side, Borussia Dortmund thrashed them by 4-0 at the Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday Champions League game.
The defeat is the first under manager Simeone, as the German side were more effective and clinical in their counter-attacking play, that saw one of the most defensive minded side, and a side that rarely concede goals, let in 4 goals in one night, and in a dramatic fashion.
Atletico started well controlling Borussia Dortmund’s attempts to counterattack and also getting the ball into Bürki’s box on several occasions. The German side were fast and dangerous on the break, but the Spanish side worked well to stop them, while at the same time trying to find Costa, who tried to run behind Borussia Dortmund’s defence every time he got the chance.
Borussia Dortmund got their first goal, when Belgian midfielder, Witsel’s shot from outside the box and was deflected and ended inside Oblak’s goal.
Simeone decided to make the first substitution at half-time when Thomas Partey made way for Rodrigo. As a consequence, the team started the second half very well, pressuring high up the pitch and putting Borussia Dortmund’s defence under a lot of pressure.
Saúl had three chances in a row, the first of which went just wide of the post, but it was Borussia Dortmund who got their scored their second goal of the night and then the third after a blistering counter-attack. A defensive mistake led to Borussia Dortmund’s fourth goal in the 89th minute and the match finished shortly thereafter.
Simeone after the game expressed his take on the game as:
“They were better. We played well in the first half and we started off the second half very well too. There are a lot of games left and we hope we can get through to the next round. We’re competing well and we need to remember that we have fantastic players,” Simeone said.
Captain Godín also spoke after the game and said that the team had to improve. He said:
“We need to become better. Now we have to work hard to improve our collective level. Tonight we played well until their goal. We started the second half well too, attacking a lot, but in football, you have to be effective, and they were effective,” our captain said.