Diego Pablo Simeone attended the press before carrying out the last training session prior to the Champions match against Bayern Munich. The rojiblanco team exercises at the Allianz Arena where the Argentine coach will not be able to count on Giménez, Saúl, Vrsaljko and Diego Costa due to injury.
Lately before every game against a powerful very few bet on you, does it bother you?
The truth is that we do not stop to listen to what may come from outside, we are on the way to continue progressing, to be regular in the game, to be solid as a team and we will play tomorrow against an important rival trying to take the game where we can do damage .
Do you see your team with more tools for this type of match against?
I believe that all teams need spaces. Very few manage to be forceful in a few meters and with few spaces. We have seen it in the national team break and in the League and the spaces are favorable to be able to hurt. When one has to propose and cover 50 meters, break in unmarked, shoot from medium distance … it is not easy and few teams can have that regularity. Sometimes we do it well, sometimes it costs us and we feel better when we have more spaces. The history of the club is that and we have been able to maintain it.
Is Atlético a favorite for the Champions League?
I understand the question, the answer will be known. We do not move away from game to game, we do not think about what may happen more tomorrow. The Bayern coach counted the same as me, last season they went match by match and the eleven they played won. If the champion says it, a message with which we have worked for years, welcome.
How do you defend a team with so many resources?
It is the third time that we are going to face them since 2016 and since 1974 it has taken years to face one of the best in the world again and that is exciting. It is defended with work, responsibility and criteria to work as a team, options we will have and we will have to be lucid.
Do you see yourself in that group of favorites?
I'll answer you the same thing again, we don't listen to the outside, we demand of ourselves first and we are clear about the objective of the season. We want to get to him game by game, there is no other way, everything that is dreamed of are fantasies, what counts in football and in life is the day to day.
He has key casualties like those of Saúl and Giménez.
They are important absences, but those who enter will do so with the same enthusiasm, that excites me.
Is the Champions the pending subject?
My pending subject is to improve the club and compete.
Can it be a match for João Félix to show his defensive commitment?
Tomorrow is one more game, as it will be on Saturday, Tuesday and there is no game to show that. João Félix has been doing it in this last stage that we started this championship. I do not think that a match one chooses to show this, it feels, it works, it is transmitted and it is done naturally and I have no doubt that Joao will do it.