Atletico Madrid loses 4-0 to Benfica

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Atletico Madrid’s 4-0 loss at Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday was the team’s worst defeat in Europe in three years, according to UEFA.

Diego Simeone’s team had lost by the same score to Bayern Munich in the group stage of Europe’s top club competition in 2021.

The four-goal loss to Benfica is Atletico’s joint-biggest margin of defeat in UEFA club competitions. It had previously lost by four goals five other times.

“From the start, it was really bad,” Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak said. “We didn’t play from the beginning until the end. They did a great job, they have a great team and they deserve to win. They did much more than us. Unfortunately for us, we we lost 4-0 and it could have been more.”

Benfica’s victory equaled the biggest winning margin by a Portuguese team against a Spanish one in a European Cup or Champions League match. It also earned the other victory, defeating Real Madrid 5-1 in February 1965.

Muhammed Kerem Akturkoglu opened the scoring in the 13th minute, and Ángel Di Maria, Alexander Bah and Orkun Kokcu added second-half goals for the Portuguese club. Di Maria and Kokcu scored off penalty kicks.

“They took advantage of all the mistakes we could have made and the truth is that they deserved to win,” Simeone said.

The uncharacteristic defeat by Atletico came after a tense Spanish league derby against Madrid on Sunday, when Atletico needed a stoppage-time goal by Ángel Correa to salvage a 1-1 draw at its Metropolitano stadium.

Atletico, usually known for its stout defense under Simeone, had last conceded four goals in a league match against Osasuna in May, when it lost 4-1 at home in its second-to-last game of the season.

Atletico had opened its Champions League campaign with a 2-1 win against Leipzig at the Metropolitano. It had only one win in its next three league matches after that.

The club will have to close part of its stadium for three matches because of fan trouble in the derby against Madrid, when some of its supporters threw objects on the field after Madrid scored a goal, prompting the referee to send the players to the locker rooms and interrupting the game for more than 15 minutes.