Diego Simeone felt the best team won at the BayArena as Atletico Madrid claimed a "thrilling" 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash.
Saul Niguez and Antoine Griezmann gave Atletico a 2-0 half-time lead. Kevin Gameiro, with a penalty, restored the two-goal advantage after Karim Bellarabi had pulled one back.
But Stefan Savic diverted the ball into his own net to further cut Atletico's advantage, before Fernando Torres struck four minutes from time to give the visitors four away goals and a commanding first-leg lead.
Simeone said: "It has been an exciting game, thrilling for the people who watched it on TV. We take with us a good result.
"They got on top because they scored an unexpected goal and it's normal.
"The result is fair, it could have been larger if we had been more precise but their keeper is very good despite the result.
"I am very happy with the work of the team, that continues to grow."
Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt said: "We took a while finding our game today. Atletico were merciless in punishing our mistakes.
"We didn't play how we know we can, but I'm proud of our response in the second half."
Source: PA
