Atletico Madrid star Koke has fired back at Pep Guardiola after his fellow countryman criticised Diego Simeone's defensive tactics during their Champions League clash.
Manchester City emerged 1-0 winners in the first leg thanks to Kevin de Bruyne's strike midway through the second half. Chances were few and far between at the Etihad, with Atletico sitting deep and even failing to register a shot on goal themselves.
City boss Guardiola was clearly disappointed with the manner in which the game unfolded due to Atletico's defensive approach. The Spaniard even accused Simeone of playing without a striker in order to stunt the home side's attacking play.
Explaining how he thought Simeone set up his side, Guardiola said: "He [Diego Simeone] has put [Antoine] Griezmann on the far right and Joao Felix on the far left, and they have gone 5-5-0. Two lines of 5.
"And in prehistory, today and in a hundred thousand years, attacking a 5-5 is very difficult. It is that there is no space. Apart from the fact that they are very competitive and defend very well, there is no space."
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However, Atleti captain Koke, who has spent his whole career with the Madrid club, bit back on Instagram. Alongside a picture of the club's crest, he wrote: "In love with your story since prehistory. Proud to be from Atleti."
Simeone also defended the way he went about the game against City, insisting it was a compliment to the Sky Blues and that he could only do so much with the players at his disposal. He explained: "We played an extraordinary opponent. The stats speak for themselves. They are very dynamic.
"We want to go through with the tools at our disposal that we have. We defended really well, a massive collective effort. We could've attacked a bit better on the counter attack.
"Let's see if we can have the ball a bit more and create more difficulty for our opponents but that comes with being calm and having the collective defensive effort. I've been shown how to compete until the end in any way you can."
