Ex-Chelsea star in Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid controversy as Diego Simeone makes demand

Atletico Madrid's match against Real Madrid was suspended after the home fans appeared to throw objects onto the pitch. On Sunday evening, Conor Gallagher locked horns with Thibaut Courtois and Antonio Rudiger at the Civitas Metropolitano as emotions boiled over – on and off the pitch.

The La Liga clash was halted in the 68th minute after the former Chelsea goalkeeper told the referee, Mateo Busquets Ferrer, that missiles had been thrown in his direction. According to the Mirror, the objects included a bag of faeces and a lighter.

Eager to get the match underway, Koke and Jose Maria Gimenez approached the crowd to plead with fans to stop before the referee opted to suspend the tie. Red mist descended on the home faithful shortly after Eder Militao fired Los Blancos into the lead.

The Madrid derby eventually resumed 20 minutes later, with Angel Correa finding a late equaliser. Speaking to reporters after the game, Carlo Ancelotti applauded the suspension of the clash, while Diego Simeone suggested that Courtois was partly to blame for his 'provocative' celebrations after Militao's goal.

The Real Madrid boss said: "I’m just a coach; I focus on the sporting side of things. There are others who are more experienced than me to make the right decisions."

When asked if the break in play affected his side's performance or gave the opposition a chance to regroup, Ancelotti replied: "Absolutely not, it was a game with this issue that affected both teams equally because both wanted to play, but the referee made the right call."

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Later in the post-match press conference, the Italian revealed what Ferrer told him and Simeone before suspending the game. Ancelotti said: "He told us that lighters had been thrown twice, and if it happened again, he'd have to stop the match for a ten-minute break and then restart."

In an interview with DAZN, as quoted by ESPN, the Atletico Madrid boss said: "We all have to help. Obviously the fans throwing lighters – like what happened at the Bernabeu, when Courtois was our player, and was hit on the head with a lighter – isn't right.

"But we the protagonists don't help when we provoke the fans and the fans get angry. [Throwing things] is wrong, it isn't right, but we have to stay calm and understand the situation, know how we can celebrate a goal, not looking at the stands, with those gestures."

On the players' attempt to ease tensions in the crowd, Simeone added: "The message was to think about the club, think about your team. You aren't helping the team. They said it wasn't their fault, they said they'd been provoked by the opposition goalkeeper."

Then, in his post-match press conference, Simeone claimed the club 'don't need those fans in the stands'. He said: "The club will take the decisions they have to take with the fans who've committed these incidents.

"We don't need those fans in the stands, we need the fans who support us and think about the team and the club. It doesn't justify it, but we as protagonists can also help, to make sure people don't react like that. It doesn't justify it, but be careful with what we do, myself included."

Courtois and Rudiger will be hoping to exact their revenge on Gallagher when Real Madrid welcome Atletico to the Santiago Bernabeu in February. The former Chelsea trio are in the early stages of a title race, with just a handful of points separating them from Barcelona in first.