Simeone was among those to call for calm during the enforced stoppage, with the Argentine coach telling DAZN afterwards of an unfortunate situation that could have been avoided: “We all have to help. The people who threw those lighters, as also happened at the Bernabeu when Courtois was our player and he received a lighter on his head, are not behaving well. But we, the protagonists, probably don’t help either when we underestimate people, we burden people, we provoke people and people get angry.
“People have no other way of doing it, in a bad way, which is not right, but we also have to see the place of the protagonist, try to remain calm, understand the situations. You can celebrate a goal, but you can’t celebrate it by looking at the stands, pointing at them and making faces at them, because then people get angry. It’s not justified, but neither is what started out justified because otherwise, we’re always the victim.”