Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino, formerly the manager at Barcelona, offered a sympathetic response to his former team's historic comeback over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
The Spanish club, which trailed the French side 4-0 after the first game of their two-legged Champions League matchup, scored six goals to advance to the quarterfinals. No team had ever rallied from that large a deficit in the second game of the Champions League.
“The only comment I will make is it’s one of the those games where everyone wants to be on the winning side and not the losing side because one team is in a very joyful moment and on the other end is pure suffering,” he said Thursday after his team’s training session.
Martino coached at Barcelona from 2013-14, leading the team to the Spanish Super Cup.
Atlanta United midfielder Miguel Almiron watched the game with teammate Yamil Asad.
“It was an historic game,” he said.
Midfielder Julian Gressel said the comeback reminded him of helping his college team, Providence, rally from 4-1 at halftime to defeat Maryland, 5-4, last season in the NCAA tournament. Gressel scored two goals in that game.
“It’s just something unbelievable, indescribable, the feeling the probably have right now,” he said. “Now they have to on and probably win it, right?”
