Barry Ferguson and Peter Grant slam Diego Simeone after Celtic defeat to Atletico Madrid

Barry Ferguson and Peter Grant let rip at Diego Simeone for his antics during Celtic’s 6-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

During the game and after the game, Diego Simeone managed to get the attention of the media by, either pushing for Daizen Maeda to get sent off or failing to shake Brendan Rodgers’ hands.

On the Daizen Maeda red card, initially, a yellow card was dished out, before the on-field referee was told to go to his monitor where he changed his call – A BBC reporter shared how Brendan Rodgers reacted to it all.

But it didn’t stop there with Diego Simeone because, just like at Parkhead, he failed to properly acknowledge the Celtic boss, with Peter Grant stating that it’s ‘bad manners’ and Barry Ferguson adding he would ‘do my head in’, as he told Go Radio.

At least the Atletico Madrid boss shook hands in the reverse fixture, this time around, he just ran straight down the tunnel – Ally McCoist also didn’t hold back on his antics.

All in all, despite Diego Simeone’s side recording a 6-0 win, their manager, somehow, still managed to get the headlines.

Diego Simeone’s antics

“It didn’t help the fact that it was right in front of Simeone, all of them,” said Grant. “They were all giving it that imaginary red card and I hate all that stuff. Ridiculous. That didn’t help.

On Simeone going straight up the tunnel at FT: “Bad manners,” added Grant. “But it doesn’t matter, even if it is. You have just got to respect. People may say, he maybe waits up the tunnel or whatever. But it just doesn’t look right you know. It doesn’t look right. But that’s him. The world is against us. You can sense that even with the supporters. He has got them all believing that. They are all against us.

“The disrespecting thing for me is every one of his players have their antics, with the Maeda situation, they were all flashing that imaginary card and that imaginary card is an automatic yellow for yourself, and the referee did it.”

Barry Ferguson added: “But Simeone, I am not surprised. He does it all the time. It would do my head in. I don’t like that at the sides, waving the hands and all of that. Just let the referee get on with it. That cracks me up.”

Celtic have bigger fish to fry

Well, the likes of Rodgers will be glad, both on and off the field of play, that both fixtures against Atletico Madrid are now over.

Now it’s about trying to save face and making something of Group E because the Bhoys only have one point on the board. 

Whilst many can point towards the early red card and the huge gulf in difference to Atletico, such things can’t be thrown when the final two fixtures – Lazio away and Feyenoord at home – are concluded.

It seems as though it’s going to be another post-Christmas without Europe, but the team have to, at the very least, show some fight now.