Diego Simeone deflected concern from a 4-0 hiding into praise for a rampant Borussia Dortmund side that inflicted his heaviest defeat with Atletico Madrid.
A young and vibrant Dortmund scored three times in the final 20 minutes to tear a hole through their Champions League opponents and go three points clear in Group A.
Axel Witsel's deflected effort earlier split the teams at the interval before two-goal Raphael Guerreiro and fellow substitute Jadon Sancho combined to ruthlessly expose Atleti's desperation for an equaliser.
Atletico did look likely to square the margin during a dominant spell after the restart but they failed capitalise on that period as Simeone lauded Dortmund.
"It was a clear result. We have to congratulate our opponent, they played a fast and attacking game," Simeone told reporters.
"They played very efficiently, very dynamically. The most important thing is to quickly use possession, and they did so wonderfully. They are doing very well at the moment, it is very nice to watch.
"The result is a clear one, even if we can say that the first half was an even one and that we could have drawn level later.
"[It was] 4-0, so what good is it? But I have seen plenty of good things also."
Despite the sobering setback, Diego Godin was not giving up hope of overhauling Bundesliga leaders Dortmund across the final three Group A fixtures.
"We can't blame this on bad luck or anything," the captain said. "We started the second half well but in football you need to take your chances.
"We need to improve and when things aren't coming off for you, you need to work harder individually to improve the collective level.
"Top spot is looking difficult now with their goal difference, but we need to try and beat them at home and we’ll see how it goes."