MADRID, 18 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coach of Atlético de Madrid, Diego Pablo Simeone, avoided commenting on the clash with Manchester City in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, although he expressed his “great admiration” for his counterpart Pep Guardiola and stressed that now he only has the ‘focus’ on Rayo Vallecano, rival this Saturday (9:00 p.m.) in Vallecas in LaLiga Santander.
“Above all, great admiration for Guardiola and for the work he has been doing in recent years that he shows game after game. It is a difficult competition, with great clashes and there will be time to assess the match. Now he ‘focuses’ us the Rayo game and I have only that in mind”, he said at a press conference.
Simeone celebrated that the squad “has been recovering well” from the effort of Tuesday’s match in Manchester because he assured that Rayo’s will be a “tough match” on a “complicated field”. “At home, Rayo becomes strong, has a high pace of play, speed from midfield forward and generates a lot of vertigo on the bands and sides,” he explained.
About his captain Koke Resurrection, summoned this Friday by the national coach, Luis Enrique Martínez, for the friendlies against Albania and Iceland, ‘El Cholo’ said that having spent so many years at the rojiblanco club he has gone through “different stages”.
“When you come back from an injury you need playing time to perform at your best level. The other day you responded in a formidable way. We need it that way, we need you to push yourself to maintain that level. Because it’s important for us that you’re in the condition of how he played against Manchester,” he said.
Simeone fled from the euphoria despite qualifying for the ‘Champions’ quarterfinals because, according to him, he has a mature and balanced dressing room, which “understands” that bad streaks can often come in a section of the championship . “Everyone is feeling participatory, beyond the fact that some have more minutes. Everyone is seen with the same enthusiasm, with the same illusion and focused on the same”, he indicated.
In this sense, the Argentine coach assured that the group is always preparing “to compete in the best way”. “Sometimes we manage to get to that emotional and competitive state, and when we do, the team is at its best,” he said.