Stefan Savic has laughed off Marcus Thuram’s bizarre ball game during Atletico Madrid’s thrilling Champions League triumph over Inter.
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Spanish giants prevailed on penaltiesThrilling contest at Civitas MetropolitanoPlenty of clashes caught the eye in MadridWHAT HAPPENED?
The Liga giants are through to the quarter-finals of continental competition after prevailing in a last-16 penalty shootout with rivals from Serie A. Diego Simeone’s side held their nerve after the contest ended 2-2 on aggregate.
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Former Manchester City defender Savic had plenty to celebrate afterwards and was able to make light of a “strange situation” in extra-time that saw him grabbed in a rather sensitive area by Inter forward Thuram. The Montenegro international told of Thuram’s hit below the belt: “It was a strange situation because I’m not used to it! But it’s okay, it can happen in the game. It’s okay. We laughed after that and I don’t know… It’s a strange situation but it’s not so important.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Savic preferred to focus on Atletico’s progress into the last eight, adding: “It’s amazing. It’s a dream night for us. If I wasn’t today on the pitch today, I would like to be in the stands to watch a game like this. It was an incredible game, like a final of the Champions League. It was amazing. I’m very happy that we won this game because we were in a very difficult situation. Nobody believed in us except our amazing fans and the team. We knew that we needed to fight until the end, we knew it would be a long game. The boss said before the game, ‘Prepare everybody, be ready, because it’s going to be a long night’, and it was a long night and all the guys that entered showed the same spirit, the same bravery. We are very happy for the boys.”
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Atletico will discover their quarter-final opponents when the next Champions League draw takes place on Friday, with a star-studded line-up also seeing Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund make it to that stage.