Atletico coach Simeone shows trademark emotions stopping Inter's winning run in Champions League

MADRID (AP) — Few do suffering and drama in the Champions League like Atletico Madrid and coach Diego Simeone.

Even while winning, as they did Wednesday 2-1 over Inter Milan, Simeone showed his wide repertoire of agonized and ecstatic emotions on the sideline dressed in trademark all-black suit, shirt and tie.

Atletico ended Inter’s perfect record of four straight wins in this Champions League when captain José María Giménez scored with a header late in stoppage time.

“He has great timing,” Simeone said of Giménez. “We needed a goal like that because it always looks good when a center back scores.”

A game between two teams that combined to lose four of the past 12 Champions League finals was settled by a goal just like the one that denied Atletico an elusive first title in 2014.

Giménez rose to meet an outswinging corner with a powerful header angled toward the bottom corner of the goal. Just as Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos did in stoppage time 12 seasons ago to send the final to extra time. Atletico would lose 4-1 that night in Lisbon and a furious Simeone came on the field during extra time.

This time, seeing his captain score sent Simeone on a joyous run down the touchline with both balled fists punching the air.

A half-hour earlier Simeone had been arguing in referee François Letexier’s face as the French official showed him a yellow card for disputing a decision. An Atletico attack was stopped because Inter defender Manuel Akanji was floored taking a ball to the face.

It was a classic show by the former Argentina midfielder who has lost no passion approaching 14 years in the job as perhaps the coach in European soccer who most sets and symbolizes his team’s personality.

If any team can take the pressure it is Atletico, and its defense had to absorb 17 attempts by Inter, including five that forced saves from goalkeeper Juan Musso.

Five of those attempts came in Inter’s whirlwind start to the game that Atletico punctuated by taking the lead in the ninth minute.

Even that did not come easy after the original goal by Julián Alvarez was ruled out for a possible handball by Álex Baena directing the ball back toward the danger area.

Atletico had to ensure a three-minute video review for Letexier to overturn his original decision and award the goal.

Inter swarmed over Atletico to start the second half, and Nicolò Barella’s looping shot bounced up off the crossbar minutes before Piotr Zieliński leveled the score with a low shot past Musso.

“There is a lot of disappointment,” Inter coach Christian Chivu said. “We played a great game.”

Atletico rose in the 36-team standings to 12th with nine points, likely heading to the knockout stages with trips next to PSV Eindhoven and Galatasaray, and a final home game against Bodo/Glimt.

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Atletico Madrid's players celebrate after wining the Champions League opening phase soccer match against Inter Milan, in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Atletico Madrid's Jose Gimenez scores his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan, in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Atletico Madrid's head coach Diego Simeone reacts at the bench during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan, in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Atletico Madrid's Jose Gimenez celebrates his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan, in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Atletico Madrid's head coach Diego Simeone speaks with referee François Letexier after receiving a yellow card during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan, in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

BAGHDAD (AP) — An American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad had tried to cross from Syria into Iraq three weeks earlier and was initially turned back, an Iraqi official said Wednesday.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said Shelly Renee Kittleson had also been warned of threats against her in the days before her abduction. A freelance journalist who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria and was described by those who knew her as deeply knowledgeable about the region and the communities she covered, Kittleson was kidnapped from a street in the Iraqi capital Tuesday and remains missing.

Hussein Alawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said Kittleson had sought to enter via the al-Qaim crossing from Syria on March 9 but was turned back because she did not have a press work permit and because security concerns due to “the escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over Iraqi airspace as a result of the war on Iran.”

She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq valid for 60 days issued to allow foreign citizens stranded in neighboring countries to “transit through Iraq to reach their home countries via available transport routes,” he said.

Kittleson entered Baghdad a few days before she was kidnapped and was staying in a hotel in the capital, he said.

“The incident is being followed closely by Iraqi security and intelligence agencies under the supervision of” al-Sudani, Alawi said. He noted that one suspect believed to be involved in the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is being interrogated.

Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect after the car he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were able to escape with the journalist in a second car.

An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities believe she is being held in Baghdad and are trying to locate her and secure her release. He said authorities “have information about the abducting party” but declined to give more details.

U.S. officials have alleged that Kittleson was taken by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-linked Iraqi militia that has been implicated in previous kidnappings of foreigners. The group has not claimed the kidnapping and the Iraqi government has not publicly said anything about the kidnappers' affiliation.

The Iraqi intelligence official said that prior to Kittleson's abduction, Iraqis had contacted U.S. officials to notify them that there was a specific kidnapping threat against her by Iran-affiliated militias.

Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on X Tuesday that the “State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.”

A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said, “She was contacted multiple times with warnings of the threats against her," including as late as the night before the kidnapping.

Kittleson’s mother, 72-year-old Barb Kittleson, who spoke to The Associated Press at her home in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, said she heard about the kidnapping from a news report on Tuesday and was visited by the FBI at her house on Tuesday night.

When asked how she felt about the kidnapping she said, “Terrible. Scared. I’ll pray for her.”

Barb Kittleson said she last exchanged emails with her daughter on Monday. Shelly Kittleson sent photos of herself from Iraq, her mother said.

“Journalism is what she wanted to do so bad,” Barb Kittleson said. “I wanted her to come home and not do it, but she said, ‘I’m helping people.’”

Surveillance footage from Baghdad that was obtained by the AP shows what seems to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped. It shows two men approaching a person standing on a street corner and ushering the person into the back of a car. There appears to be a brief struggle to shut the car door before the men get into the vehicle and it drives away.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S. facilities in the country since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Bauer reported from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

The street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)

U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo)

U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo)

A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)

A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)