Schmeichel smoulders after Leicester hit by Atletico penalty

Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel struggled to conceal his frustration after Antoine Griezmann’s controversial penalty gave Atletico Madrid a 1-0 advantage in their Champions League quarter-final.

Schmeichel saved a penalty in each leg to help the Premier League champions past Sevilla in the last-16 but France star Griezmann coolly sent him the wrong way after 28 minutes at the Vicente Calderon.

But the manner in which Atletico were awarded the spot-kick understandably infuriated Schmeichel, as replays showed Marc Albrighton’s blatant foul on the rampaging Griezmann occurred outside the area.

“It’s obvious to see, it ruined our game-plan,” Schmeichel told BT Sport.

“It’s a decision that’s hard to take when it’s so clear and so obvious. We should have had something from this but we have to accept these things, apparently.

“It’s never a penalty. They might have scored from what should have been a free-kick but it is easier to score from a penalty.”

Leicester failed to register a shot on target during the 90 minutes, with boss Craig Shakespeare bringing on Andy King to bolster his midfield and contain Griezmann’s threat at the break.

Wilfred Ndidi dropped into a holding role in front of Leicester’s back four and Wales international King was pleased with his team-mates’ efforts.

The @LCFC players take the time to thank their travelling fans. #UCL pic.twitter.com/IolihQHH6Q

— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 12, 2017

“To come here and still be in the game was the main objective,” he said. “We can take them back to ours and hopefully like in the last round overturn the deficit.

“We could see what a threat he was in the hole. We put an extra man in midfield, put big Wilf in and around him and it worked well.

“We know we’re strong at home and hopefully we can cause them some problems there.”