Atlético Madrid's 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday was a memorable occasion for the home side, albeit a very heated affair. There were several flashpoints throughout the 90 minutes at the Metropolitano, one of which came after the visitors had taken the lead just before half-time.
As Leverkusen's players celebrated their goal, scored by Piero Hincapie, Jeremy Frimpong kicked Margarita's bouquet of flowers, which have been placed near the corner of the pitch as a tradition at home games for the past thirty years.
This action was met with much anger from Atleti supporters, who saw it as very disrespectful by the Dutch defender. Immediately after the festivities, he was angrily approached by defender Jose Maria Gimenez, who returned to Los Colchoneros after an injury. However, he has now admitted that he was unaware of this, and taking his X account into account, he has apologized to the club and its fans.
“After yesterday's match I learned about the tradition of the bouquet of flowers at the Metropolitano. I didn't know anything about it and at the moment of the goal I got carried away with excitement and made a mistake.
“Sorry to the Atletico fans and especially to Margarita.”
The apology appears to have been accepted by Atleti, who responded to Frimpong's tweet with an apparent acceptance of the fact that he was unaware of the significance of Margarita's flowers.
Things are looking very good for Atletico Madrid these days, despite losing their status as La Liga leaders last weekend. A win in next week's final league match against RB Salzburg would see them progress straight into the last 16 of the Champions League, which would be very good news for Diego Simeone and his players amid the hectic fixture schedule they face will get. .
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