Agony match, victory in the last sprint for Atlético de Madrid when they lost 1-0 at halftime and with a gray image. But the rojiblancos took advantage of Espanyol's mistakes and thanks to their perseverance they managed to turn it around in the 99th minute. Diego Simeone highlighted the role of the substitutes: “The best thing that happened was seeing five players from the bench who came out to change a game. We need that. We have good players. Which will determine if we are a good team if this is repeated.”, settled.
Asking for Lemar, author of the 1-2 in the addition and who stood out for his plays, the coach wanted to delve into his figure: “Lemar is in a very good moment. He had a digestive problem with the national team and lost three kilos. Then he trained , I had doubts and I did not start it. I thought about recovering it better for Wednesday, “he advanced. “He gives everything, hopefully he can repeat. That is the player we went to look for when he was in Monaco. He works, he has a good shot, he is dynamic, he is a very important piece that grew last year but lacked goals. Hopefully he will be added to him. that”, he stressed.
“10 extra minutes? I didn't see that much time wasted in a match”
One of the controversies of the meeting was the ten minutes of addition in the second half, something never seen and that generated a small debate between Vicente Moreno and Diego Simeone. “He told me the same thing, if he had seen ten minutes. I also have to say that I did not see so much time lost in a game. It would be necessary to see, it is necessary to see the changes, the stoppage, the stoppages due to injuries. You have to look. It's easy. say if he was wrong or not “.
Regarding the meeting, the coach did not hesitate to read the meeting. It was an Atlético of shadows in the first half and of lights later: “In the first half we didn't have the right game or speed. They dominated from the 15th with a dynamic, aggressive and intense game. They hurt us. We changed, and our second half was extraordinary”. And finally, he also commented on the change in the system: “We played quite a bit 4-3-3 last year, more with 5-4-1 as in the first half. They are variants. If we had been more intense and better with the ball, the game had grown. They took advantage of our weakness. We had to change to win. “