{"id":1138,"date":"2026-05-06T17:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2026-05-06T17:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:35:19","slug":"what-angry-atletico-are-saying-privately-after-jesus-appears-to-slap-pubill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=1138","title":{"rendered":"What &#8216;angry&#8217; Atletico are saying &#8216;privately&#8217; after Jesus appears to slap Pubill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Atletico Madrid are \u2018privately\u2019 feeling \u2018highly wronged by their Champions League elimination\u2019 at the hands of Arsenal, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners reached their first Champions League final for 20 years on Tuesday night as Bukayo Saka scored the only goal of the game on 44 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Arsenal<\/strong> won 1-0 on the night against Diego Simeone\u2019s men <strong>and 2-1 on aggregate to confirm their place in the final<\/strong> against either Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t most exhilarating of matches but Arsenal got the job done and now they have the chance of a spectacular double after assuming control of the Premier League title race.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Simeone talked about feeling \u201ccalm\u201d and \u201cpeaceful\u201d<\/strong> in the aftermath of the defeat to Arsenal and insisted that the Gunners \u201cdeserved\u201d their victory.<\/p>\n<p>However, Spanish publication <em>AS<\/em> insists that the Atletico Madrid players and staff \u2018privately\u2019 felt differently and believed they were \u2018highly wronged by their Champions League elimination\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Atletico Madrid guilty of negligence over ridiculous empty bus antics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Simeone, Jan Oblak and Koke all skimmed over a potential penalty on Antoine Griezmann in the second half and <em>AS<\/em> claims there \u2018is much greater anger within the club and in the locker room. Not just because of Griezmann\u2019s play. Because of everything that happened in London.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal had complained to UEFA about the height of the pitch in the away leg before Atletico Madrid also aired their grievances to the governing body over Gunners fans letting off fireworks near their team hotel.<\/p>\n<p>There was also frustration about the appointment of Daniel Siebert as referee and Bastian Dankert on VAR for the match at the Emirates, with Atletico Madrid fans feeling they were denied three penalties.<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0b629b85ba2abe5ff39df9829ee5fb57\" image-id=\"ARCH388026_00223016\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p><em>AS<\/em> explained: \u2018But the unease had been brewing even before the start. An appointment that sparked outrage. Daniel Siebert at the helm. Three matches, all against English teams, and no wins. Arsenal\u2019s perfect record (three wins out of three). But, in addition, there was a major figure behind the scenes: Bastian Dankert in charge of VAR . Only one of the seven matches he officiated had resulted in a victory.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Sneijder slams Arsenal star in \u2018shoelace\u2019 claim vs Atletico as UEFA are told \u2018to intervene\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018And that was the 1-0 win against Real Madrid, which ultimately led to their elimination on penalties\u2026 with the controversial double touch by Juli\u00e1n (Alvarez) that still resonates and forced a clarification of the rule. The last two Champions League exits with the same person overseeing the game.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>There was also controversy after the match with Atletico Madrid defender Marc Pubill appearing to be slapped by Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus as the Gunners celebrated their victory.<\/p>\n<p>Pubill attempted to lightly push an unsuspecting Viktor Gyokeres from behind as the full-time whistle sparked wild celebrations on the pitch and in the stands.<\/p>\n<p>The push from the Atletico defender saw Cristhian Mosquera and Jesus furiously react with the latter appearing to slap Pubill around the face.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p>Marc Pubill disrupting the Arsenal celebrations to approach Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, with Gabriel Jesus appearing to hit him in the face in retaliation. &#x274c;&#x1f92c; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NBwZbNhGYI\">pic.twitter.com\/NBwZbNhGYI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DailyAFC (@DailyAFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DailyAFC\/status\/2051937968198217885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Mosquera ended up being peacemaker by guiding Pubill away from the incident, while both Myles Lewis-Skelly and Declan Rice attempted to help diffuse the situation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: Arsenal accused of \u2018turgid, time-wasting, manipulative rubbish\u2019 after victory<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atletico Madrid are \u2018privately\u2019 feeling \u2018highly wronged by their Champions League elimination\u2019 at the hands of Arsenal, according to reports. The Gunners reached their first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}