“Barça is a team that obviously has an attacking gene,” warns the Atlético de Madrid coach
MADRID, 28 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coach of Atlético de Madrid, Diego Pablo Simeone, stressed this Tuesday that he and his pupils had been in the Champions League for “years” “without reaching the end” of the group stage “with this peace of mind” of knowing they had already qualified for the round of 16, a situation achieved in this 2023/24 season thanks to their key 1-3 victory against Feyenoord.
“It is always important to finish as high as possible. We had not reached the end for years with this peace of mind of seeing if we are first or second. But nothing, to continue working and rest because this match demanded a lot from us. And to think about Sunday, which It will be a very nice game,” said ‘Cholo’ Simeone before the Movistar Plus+ microphones, after winning his visit to Rotterdam for matchday 5.
“Very happy for the players, the truth is that they have been playing very important games. Today we knew about the difficulty of the rival, how important their home field is when they have played in Europe, how well they are doing in the league at the same time and we knew about the difficulty that we could find,” said the mattress coach.
Still, Atlético dealt well with the pressure on De Kuip. “We interpreted it well, we tried to play the game we wanted, there were very good performances and as a group I think we played an important game for the club,” said Simeone, whose team will compete for the lead in Group E on the sixth and final matchday. against Lazio.
But to reach that stage, winning at Feyenoord’s home was vital. “We could have scored the third earlier, it’s a shame that we didn’t have the freshness and efficiency that we could have had in those final moments of play, when it seemed like the goal was coming,” he lamented in this regard.
“We left the rival alive, as they say. There they make it 1-2, in their stadium everything starts to move again and suddenly the team appears again scoring 1-3, generating a better end to the game,” summed up the Argentine coach after a fairly lucky victory.
In addition, he praised Rodrigo Riquelme and Mario Hermoso. “It makes me very happy for their work. Mario has been coming for a year and a half or two years now, doing things very well. And Riquelme played an extraordinary game, I knew he had to play,” explained Simeone about his starting eleven. .
“Lino had just played an extraordinary game the other day against Mallorca, but I understood Roro’s characteristics could be better for the team. Luckily we got it right and he played an incredible game,” remarked the ‘Cholo’ regarding his choice for Left Lane.
Finally, Simeone spoke about the imminent league match against Barça. “Barcelona will always be Barcelona, beyond the passages or at times what they may say about them. They have a coach with very clear ideas, a group of footballers who play football very well and a team whose gene is obviously attacking. , and it is not going to change it,” he concluded.