MADRID, 6 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Atlético de Madrid defender Mario Hermoso has assured that this season we are seeing a “protagonist” red and white team and that this “hooks” people, in addition to warning of the danger of this Tuesday’s Champions League match against Celtic, against whom they will have to play “differently” than they did in Glasgow.
“We already know what the ‘Champions’ demands and what the group stages demand. Each game is demanding, we suffer it and we live it there on their field, but playing at home and with the mentality that the team has, we will go looking for the three points that we want and need,” he declared at a press conference.
Furthermore, he considers that certain things must change compared to the match they played a couple of weeks ago in Glasgow (2-2). “We always have to correct things to continue growing. We learn from our rivals, from their game and from what they transmit. It is a team that has an initiative and an approach to the game with great intensity, it has players in front who are very vertical, players who They are uncomfortable to play between the lines and to break into space,” he said.
“These are things that we are going to correct from the first leg. We have to go in with a step more than what we did there. Many times, the way you go in is the best way to change the dynamics of a game. We are going to do it differently at home,” he added.
All in a vital duel to avoid repeating the failure of last year, when they were eliminated in the group stage. “For us it is a responsibility and we assume it with the highest demands. We are a top-class team, we represent many people and a process, a long journey that has been going on for a long time. Today it is our turn. We know what It happened to us last season and of course we are going to turn around all that ball that is being generated. People know that when Atlético de Madrid has to compete in important games it is always there,” he indicated.
On the other hand, the red-and-white full-back valued his role as an assistant this season. “When you form a team of this category in a club like Atlético de Madrid, you have to take steps forward to continue growing and to nurture all those people we have in the center of the field with a lot of talent and our forwards, who are capable of score a lot of goals if we are able to assist them,” he noted.
“I love assuming that role of helping the team’s game grow from behind. I think we have seen Atlético de Madrid as a protagonist and that many people like it and are hooked. We are delighted to assume that role, both I and Axel -Witsel-, Stefan -Savic-, Azpilicueta or Rei -Reinildo-, when it is his turn to return. That is what we have to do, adapt to what the team demands of us,” he continued.
Finally, Hermoso did not want to talk about a possible renewal with the mattress club. “Right now it is not something that goes through my head or that generates a state of concern in me. I am much more concerned about continuing to have many minutes, continuing to grow within the team, that the team continues competing for everything and that it continues to show that it wants to give a step forward,” he stressed.
“Little by little we are replacing players who are no longer here with others who make us continue to be a competent team at the national and European level. I am worried that tomorrow we will play a great game, that we will win, that it will make us take a step forward that makes us feel very strong in this competition,” he concluded.