Diego Pablo Simeone, Atlético de Madrid manager, apologised to Real Madrid player Vinícius Jr. as well as Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez for his actions during the match last week in the Spanish Super Cup semi-final, when Simeone mocked the Brazilian player, telling him that "Florentino was going to get rid of him".
"I would like to apologize to Mr. Florentino and also to Mr. Vinicius for the incident you saw, obviously, it's not right of me to put myself in that position, and I obviously accept that I wasn't right", he said on a press conference on Monday.
Xabi Alonso, then still Real Madrid manager, was very critical with Simeone, saying that he was not being "a good example of a sportsmanship.
Atlético opens the Copa del Rey round of 16 tonight
Atlético de Madrid will face Deportivo Coruña on Tuesday, January 13 at 21:00 CET, 20:00 GMT. Real Madrid will play their Copa match on Wednesday, with the debut of Álvaro Arbeloa at the bench, against Albacete, and Barcelona will follow on Thursday against Racing Club Santander.