Jan Oblak and Diego Simeone have agreed that the best team won after Arsenal progressed to the Champions League final at Atletico Madrid’s expense.
A tight semi-final showdown was settled by the odd goal as Bukayo Saka scored on the stroke of half-time on Tuesday night to send Arsenal through 2-1 on aggregate.
In a game of very few clear cut chances, Oblak may feel he could have done better with the aforementioned goal as he parried Leandro Trossard’s effort right into Saka’s path and could not react quick enough to pull of a double save.
Atletico huffed and puffed in the second half, but were not able to find a way past a resolute Arsenal defence.
When there was a clear opening, Gabriel superbly got back to deny Guiliano Simeone levelling the tie and potentially forcing extra-time and penalties.
Oblak, though, believes Atletico paid the price for showing Arsenal too much respect in the first half but ultimately congratulated the Gunners on reaching the Champions League final.
“Whoever wins is always the best team (over two games). They won it and congratulations to them. Of course, we are sad and angry but that's football,” he told Amazon Prime.
"The second half was good. Maybe we showed them a little bit too much respect in the first and were afraid to play. It was good after that but not enough to progress to the final.
“It's unlucky for us and we're upset but it's life. Arsenal were better and they're in the final."
Simeone then echoed the thoughts of his goalkeeper, saying Arsenal deserved to go through based on taking their only big chance of the second leg.
"If we got knocked out, it's because our opponents deserved to get through,” the Atleti boss admitted.
“They took their chances, including their big chance in the first half, and they deserved to get through. If you ask me how I feel: I feel calm and peaceful. The team gave absolutely everything.
"In the first leg, we could have won it in the second half, but we weren't clinical enough with the situations that we were in.
"We did well defensively in the first half, but not so well going forward - but we improved in that area. We had chances, things could have gone our way, but they didn't."
