Diego Simeone steered his Atletico Madrid side into the Champions League quarter-finals against Manchester United on Tuesday night.The Spanish giants had come out of their first leg clash with United feeling disappointed, failing to make the most of some golden opportunities that could have seen them flying to England with a 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0 lead.But alas, Joao Felix's opening strike at the Wanda Metropolitana Stadium was cancelled out by Anthony Elanga's one-on-one finish to ensure that it would be all to play for at Old Trafford.

Atletico smother United at Old Trafford

To give United credit, they did look more lively on home soil than they had in Spain with Elanga and Raphael Varane, amongst others, threatening to fire the ball past Jan Oblak.

However, in the end, Atletico simply had better game management than their Premier League opponents, killing off the match once they took the lead through Renan Lodi.

From the moment that the Brazilian full-back profited from some non-existent marking at United's back post, there was an unerring inevitability to the way in which Simeone choked the life out of the hosts.

Simeone pelted with projectiles

As such, by the time that the final whistle blew with United not really having threatened to score an equaliser, there was understandable frustration around all four corners of the 'Theatre of Dreams'.

But sadly, certain fans amongst the attendees in Manchester vented their anger in highly inappropriate ways with footage showing that projectiles were thrown towards Simeone at full-time.

With the Atletico manager jogging towards the tunnel in the corner of the Old Trafford pitch, fans can be seen throwing a variety of objects towards the Argentine, who did his best to dodge the onslaught.

It's dishearteningly becoming more and more of a 'trend' for fans to throw objects towards players and staff during matches, which should never be happening.

Thankfully, it looked as though Simeone emerged relatively unscathed and no doubt United will look into how they might want to respond to the behaviour shown by some of their supporters.

Soccer Football - Champions League - Round of 16 Second Leg - Manchester United v Atletico Madrid - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - March 15, 2022 Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone leaves the pitch after the match REUTERS/Phil Noble

Five seasons without a trophy

And while that situation inevitably unfolds in the coming days, one of few things we can be certain of is that Simeone masterminded a constricting and smothering display that dumped United out of Europe.

The Red Devils have now gone a gut-wrenching five seasons without a trophy and memories of Jose Mourinho lifting the Europa League title all those years ago continues to feel more and more distant.

Man Utd 0-1 Atletico Madrid Match Reaction (Football Terrace)

For Simeone, though, there's still plenty more to come...