Atletico Madrid captain Koke admits his side's 'cruel' UCL exit 'hurts'

‘Angry’ Atletico Madrid captain Koke bemoaned stage fright as he and his team-mates suffered a ‘cruel’ Champions League exit at the hands of Borussia Dortmund.

Diego Simeone’s side arrived in Germany with a slender 2-1 lead from the first leg, but this was a night where they were overwhelmed and run ragged in front of an 81,000-strong crowd.

Dortmund, 4-2 winners on the night, dominated for the most part and were deserving winners, something which leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of Koke and his team-mates.

‘It’s a blow because we have made an enormous effort in the entire tie,’ he said.

‘We have put in a great Champions League campaign, but this hurts. We are angry because we wanted to get through. This is football and it can be cruel.’

Dortmund, who will now face Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals, roared out the blocks, as they so often do at home with the ‘Yellow Wall’ by their side, and they raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Julian Brandt and Ian Maatsen.

Atletico Madrid went on to level early in the second half with Mats Hummels’ own goal and Angel Correa’s smart finish putting the Spaniards in the driving seat.

But from there things went wrong quickly and in the space of two minutes and 24 seconds it was 4-2 and the tie was over.

‘It’s been a game of a lot of back and forth,’ Koke said, ‘but that’s football, you have to take your chances. We had them at home that we didn’t finish them off.

‘Here we have had some great chances as well. We had the chance to draw the game and, with that, go ahead in the tie. But when you don’t take advantage of your chances this happens, even more so in the Champions League.’

He added: ‘It’s a very tough night because we had the capacity of a reaction from the team, but their