‘We laughed!’ - Stefan Savic reacts to Marcus Thuram’s bizarre ball game that saw him hit below the belt during Atletico Madrid’s thrilling Champions League triumph over Inter

The Liga giants are through to the quarter-finals of continental competition after prevailing in a last-16 penalty shootout with rivals from Serie A. Diego Simeone’s side held their nerve after the contest ended 2-2 on aggregate.

Former Manchester City defender Savic had plenty to celebrate afterwards and was able to make light of a “strange situation” in extra-time that saw him grabbed in a rather sensitive area by Inter forward Thuram. The Montenegro international told TNT Sports of Thuram’s hit below the belt: “It was a strange situation because I’m not used to it! But it’s okay, it can happen in the game. It’s okay. We laughed after that and I don’t know… It’s a strange situation but it’s not so important.”

Savic preferred to focus on Atletico’s progress into the last eight, adding: “It’s amazing. It’s a dream night for us. If I wasn’t today on the pitch today, I would like to be in the stands to watch a game like this. It was an incredible game, like a final of the Champions League. It was amazing. I’m very happy that we won this game because we were in a very difficult situation. Nobody believed in us except our amazing fans and the team. We knew that we needed to fight until the end, we knew it would be a long game. The boss said before the game, ‘Prepare everybody, be ready, because it’s going to be a long night’, and it was a long night and all the guys that entered showed the same spirit, the same bravery. We are very happy for the boys.”

Atletico will discover their quarter-final opponents when the next Champions League draw takes place on Friday, with a star-studded line-up also seeing Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund make it to that stage.