UCL: Arsenal apologise to Atletico Madrid after hot water issues

 

 

Arsenal have issued an apology to Atletico Madrid after a hot water failure at Emirates Stadium disrupted the Spanish side’s pre-match preparations.

 

According to BBC Sports on Tuesday, the issue left Atletico players without access to hot showers following their training session on Monday evening.

 

UEFA regulations permit visiting teams to train at the host stadium the day before a Champions League fixture.

 

Diego Simeone’s squad took to the pitch at the Emirates ahead of Tuesday’s group-stage clash, but were forced to return to their hotel early after discovering there was no hot water in their dressing room.

 

The team were due to finish training at 19:30 but finished 15 minutes early and decided to travel back to their team hotel instead.

 

Spanish newspaper Marca reported the Atletico squad were ‘angry’ with the situation.

Arsenal apologised to the Atletico Madrid staff for the inconvenience caused, with the issue eventually resolved at 19:25.

 

Mikel Arteta’s side have won their opening two Champions League games without conceding a goal.

 

Atletico were beaten 3-2 at Liverpool but responded with a 5-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt.

 

Arteta praised Diego Simeone’s side for their willingness to win and having a high level of discipline and organisation on their side.

 

“First of all [with Simeone’s team], it is the willingness to win. You can sense that in every single ball, in every single yard, the way that they play. It’s about how they compete, and then after how they play. They are two very different things.

 

“The levels of organisation and discipline are really high, and then they have acquired a lot of talents throughout the years that are very specific for the way they want to play. They are very good at exploiting those opportunities,” Arteta said.