Madrid: Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has called for fans and players to be punished after the Madrid derby was halted for over 20 minutes due to objects being thrown onto the pitch.
The incident occurred in the 64th minute after Real Madrid’s Eder Militao scored the opening goal. Just five minutes later, referee Busquets Ferrer, after twice sending a warning over the loudspeaker, ordered the players to the dressing room because of the number of objects thrown from the stands into Courtois' area. The derby was stopped for twenty minutes.
The match eventually resumed, with Angel Correa scoring a late equaliser for Atletico, and the game ended 1-1.
"My opinion is that people who have committed incidents should be sanctioned by the club. We don't need these people. We need the people who accompany and support us. They harm the club, but be careful: that does not justify generating situations that we, the protagonists, generate," Simeone told DAZN.
"We all have to help. The people who have thrown those lighters, it's not right. But maybe it doesn't help when us, the protagonists, undermine people, charge against people, provoke people and then people get angry.
"People have no other way of doing it, in a bad way, which is not right, but we also have to try to be calm, to understand the situations, that you can celebrate a goal by celebrating it, but not by celebrating it by staring at the stands, charging against the stands, making gestures... because then people get angry.
"Of course it's not justified, but neither is the initial thing justified because otherwise we'll always be victims. The one who throws the cigarette lighter should be sanctioned and the one who provokes should also be sanctioned. This way there is no more laughter and things like that, as you are not sanctioned, you are allowed to do things."
Atletico Madrid issued a statement early on Monday condemning the incident, and vowed to take strict disciplinary action against those responsible.
"Atletico de Madrid wishes to express their rejection of the throwing of objects from a section of the south stand in the 68th minute of the match against Real Madrid. The club's security department has been working together with the police to locate those involved, one of whom has already been identified," the club said in a statement.
"The club will apply the internal regime foreseen for very serious cases to the people involved in this incident. These attitudes have no place in football and tarnish the image of a stadium that has experienced a spectacular atmosphere with more than 70,000 spectators in the stands, the vast majority of whom have shown exemplary behaviour."
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti supported the referee's decision to pause the game. "It was the right thing for the referee to do. We had to stop the game for 10 minutes. We changed a few things in the dressing room and we started again. Nobody liked this stoppage, but the referee was right".
"I don't think the team switched off because of the stoppage. It affected both teams the same. They threw the lighter and the game was stopped twice. The referee told us to rest for ten minutes and after that, we'll start again," he said.
Source: IANS