<Gianluigi Buffon, right, Leonardo Bonucci, left, and other former Juventus stars carry a wreath for ex team-mate Alex Manninger
“‘You seen this?’ Antoine Griezmann laughed. Matteo Ruggeri tried to push the camera away. The staples in his splattered forehead stuck out. Blood continued to gush. ‘El Tigre’s gonna look better now,’ his Atletico Madrid team-mate, Koke, joked. Even the club’s social media admin got in on the act. ‘Call an ambulance!’ Ruggeri did not emerge unscathed from playing one-on-one with arguably the best player on the planet. Lamine Yamal skipped past him. He nutmegged and eluded him. Atletico’s head coach, Diego Simeone, shouted at him. ‘Matteo! Matteo!’ Back in the dressing room at the Metropolitano, Ruggeri raised a fist and smiled. It was worth it. Atletico were through to the Champions League semi-finals at Barcelona’s expense and the 23-year-old Italian, one of three former Atalanta players in their team, looked like a warrior. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)