{"id":970,"date":"2026-04-30T10:48:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T10:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=970"},"modified":"2026-04-30T10:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T10:48:43","slug":"simeone-slaps-and-shoves-arsenal-star-in-tunnel-bust-up-as-arteta-incredibly-fuming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=970","title":{"rendered":"Simeone slaps and shoves Arsenal star in tunnel bust-up as Arteta &#8216;incredibly fuming&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Diego Simeone slapped and shoved Ben White in a tunnel bust-up as Arsenal drew 1-1 with Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.<\/p>\n<p>Viktor Gyokeres gave Arsenal the lead from the spot after he was bundled over in the box by D\u00e1vid Hancko, before Julian Alvarez also converted a penalty to level the tie following a Ben White handball.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: VAR and its foundational lie exposed yet again as Arsenal pay penalty in Madrid<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Arsenal will head into the second leg at the Emirates as strong favourites to prevail and reach the Champions League final, but can expect a nervy, tense affair in the return leg after the game at the Wanda Metropolitan threatened to boil over following an incident at half-time.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions rose as White walked over Atletico\u2019s badge and was taken to task by Giuliano Simeone for what was seen as a sign of disprespect.<\/p>\n<p>Diego Simeone then pulled his son away before speaking to White, slapping him on the back multiple times and shoving the Arsenal defender.<\/p>\n<p>White wasn\u2019t happy with Atletico manager\u2019s reaction and pushed back before a number of players and staff stepped in to separate the pair.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p>BEN WHITE STEPS ON ATLETI CREST AND SIMEONE REACTS &#x1f6a8;&#x1f6a8;<\/p>\n<p>On his way to the tunnel, the Arsenal defender accidentally stepped on the club\u2019s badge, and Simeone immediately called him out &#x1f5e3;&#xfe0f;<\/p>\n<p>Was it disrespectful or just a mistake? &#x1f914;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BenWhite?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BenWhite<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AtleticoMadrid?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AtleticoMadrid<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Arsenal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Arsenal<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UCL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UCL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9lzBQpGIkZ\">pic.twitter.com\/9lzBQpGIkZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MARCA in English &#x1f1fa;&#x1f1f8; (@MARCAinENGLISH) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MARCAinENGLISH\/status\/2049600454384861629?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1076770987\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>There was late controversy<\/strong> in the game when referee Danny Makkelie overturned his decision to award Arsenal another penalty for a Hancko foul on Eberechi Eze after being asked to consult his pitch-side monitor.<\/p>\n<p>And Mikel Arteta revealed after the game why he was \u201cabsolutely fuming\u201d with the incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were disappointed for the Atl\u00e9tico penalty,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cIn\u00a0the\u00a0Premier League, it\u2019s not a penalty but here I have to accept that with the rules and how consistent they\u2019ve been, I accept that this is a handball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I\u2019m incredibly \u00adfuming with\u00a0is how the hell the penalty on Ebs\u00a0gets overturned in the \u00admanner that it happened when there is no clear\u00a0and obvious error. This\u00a0changes\u00a0the course of the game. And at this level, I\u2019m sorry but this cannot happen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: Gerrard hails \u2018immense\u2019 Arsenal star; tells Arteta to recall Gunners pair for second leg vs Atletico<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA very clear explanation of the decision is what happens for a period of time (when) a referee has to watch it 13 times. What\u2019s more clear than that? It\u2019s impossible and we are all fuming about it. We need to apply the rules \u2026 (the way) they applied the rules on Ben White\u2019s penalty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have fought so hard for nine months to be in this \u00adposition \u2026 I mean, that\u2019s another goal that changed completely the course of the tie. And it cannot happen. We put so much on it. So, so, so much on it. This cannot happen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is clear contact. If you make that decision, you cannot overturn that decision. When you have to look at it 13 times \u2026 at this level it\u2019s \u00adcompletely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: Gyokeres battles Simeone \u2018dark arts\u2019 to enjoy sliding doors moment in \u00a3130m Arsenal boost<\/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>Diego Simeone slapped and shoved Ben White in a tunnel bust-up as Arsenal drew 1-1 with Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-970","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\/970","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=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}