Simeone appeared in Moviatar LaLiga's 'flash interview' to analyze Atlético's victory against Betis, which mathematically qualifies the Atletico team for the Champions League.
Classification for the Champions: “We had been making a very big effort. The team has had a great reaction after the tie against Liverpool, knowing what the club was playing and how important it is for the club to be in the Champions League every year. Thanks to that, this match came, in the one that had to make a double effort against a team that was already calm “.
Red to Beautiful: “The image is clear, it is behind. Savic was the last man. We thought it could be yellow, the referee interpreted it to be red. The one who decides is the referee. He did not have an easy game in his dismissal, but he took it forward with hierarchy. “
Revisions in the VAR: “The first goal may be, the second maybe, the expulsion … but when the third went to look at the image again we said it was being complicated, but luckily it was good. I am very happy for the players, they made a work that led us to once again be in the Champions two dates before. “
Later he attended the press:
Simeone: “These are us, they hit us and we get up”
The objective of the Champions League has been achieved with many setbacks.
It was a tough game, we knew, with episodes that did not favor us. We started as we wanted, pressing to take them more open stealing the ball and the arrivals and the goals that did not go up to the scoreboard appeared. In the second half, the expulsion came very soon with all the accumulated fatigue and 40 minutes ahead. I get goose bumps explaining it, but there are no people in the field, but their soul is there and all that the Metropolitan Wanda has appeared. A game was taken forward from the difficulty, the conviction, the defensive work … a great effort by Vitolo, Carrasco, Costa, the way that Felipe entered a very tough game out of nowhere. I think it is the conclusion of the group that we have, which is very good, they get along very well with each other and that is demonstrated in the game, a good group forms a good team and the team has responded for another year to what the club needs to continue growing in the unimaginable future that awaits.
Morata and Costa still do not play together.
We looked for him in preseason, with João on the side with his vision for two very important, strong players, with a goal and hierarchy. Today appears within those possibilities that the team gives us the form of Llorente, the growth of Vitolo in the effort, the collective work, the growth of Carrasco, we need the best João Félix and that gives us the power to repeat that situation better than not We have used it again because there are many players who are starting to feel good and it gives us the possibility of having an interlaced game.
You are a great supporter of VAR, are you happy today?
I keep saying the same thing, it will benefit and harm us, but it gives us the option to repeat it so many times. The referees are the most prepared, but they are always people and at least we all see it, but with something concrete that is what you see.
It is a meritorious season with so many difficulties.
We always give the note at the end of the season. There are many people who, in any circumstance of the season, take the opportunity to say that the cycle is over, that people are bored and fill a lot of pages marking negative things. But a team is not always on the same level, it goes in stages. We started very well, then we did not have regularity, we lost the Super Cup on penalties and we were able to win it, it gave us a slump after losing the Cup and there the team began to grow. I never stopped trusting the work that this team reflects. It is a season that we are leaving, we go to the Champions League two games before finishing LaLiga to meet the objective and we have four new defenders, almost always three of them starters who were not last year, the presence of João with his intermittent but an incomparable talent that will make him shine next year, the growth of Saúl, Thomas, Koke, the irruption of Llorente, the growth of Carrasco… we were looking for solutions to continue being competitive, and we are.
A VAR led by ex-referees
People protest a lot about the VAR.
I am not going to enter that assessment because I already told what I thought about the VAR. It would also seem to me a good option that the ex-referees can have that possibility of managing the VAR, they who spent many years in football and are now somewhat more isolated, they are not competing with their colleagues Sunday after Sunday, that would be a good option.
Now they have the Champions.
I'm not absolutely thinking about that. We want to come out third, as high as we can in this League and there will be time to work and seek to arrive in the best way at an unbeatable moment as the Champions have accustomed us.
They are eight years in a row qualifying for Champions, the same as in all history.
I do not stop to analyze what is being done, we always seek to improve and grow and the only way is to give the club the possibility with our work in the field that they can manage the tremendous growth of the club in these years. If there was a moment to qualify for the Champions as it was, it was what happened in the match, because this is us. They hit us and we get up and we always compete and we will continue to compete, having all the energy so that all four legs, fans, players, coach and club, we stay firm. This is Atlético de Madrid and I think that in the second half when it seemed that everything was going to suffer, he won.