Atlético Madrid coach Diego Simeone was a man of many emotions after the final whistle gave his side a 3-2 aggregate win over Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday night at the Metropolitano.
“Phew, it’s been 14 years, and honestly, seeing the team still competing really moves me,” a jubilant Simeone reflected in his post-match comments.
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He added, “the players have changed, we’ve had to start over countless times, and here we are again among the top four in Europe”, before explaining, “we faced a team that plays extraordinarily well, with incredible speed, they’re hard to contain, we put in a huge effort after going down 0-2, despite individual mistakes and we managed to get back into the game and stay calm. Then the 1-2 was a great goal. The second half was more balanced. Bringing on Nico, Baena, and Sørloth gave us energy, and they started to lose that speed, leaving the crosses for Araujo and Lewandowski”.
“Yes, but it could happen. They’re very good. When you play against teams like that and make mistakes, they don’t forgive you. It could happen: we were thinking they might score one or two goals. We had to play, attack, and impose ourselves. The game wasn’t about defending, even if the opponent forces you into it whether you want to or not. Sometimes you don’t want to defend, but they force you into it because you can’t take the ball away from them.”
“We’d spoken before the match. He didn’t have to prove anything to us. I know him: he’s extraordinary, an incredible professional, a player with great qualities and room for improvement. That mistake happened, and it’s not easy to carry on, but he showed composure, grit, and leadership to play a difficult match. He went from strength to strength, finishing very well.”
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“Every time we face them, we know there’s only one way to approach it: to attack them. They had more possession this time; in the previous match, it was more even. If you don’t attack them, you lose. They’re very good at attacking. We knew the chances we’d have. In the Copa del Rey, we had a fantastic first half here and then had to suffer there. In the first leg of the Champions League, we capitalized on the key moments that went our way, and that 0-2 lead gave us some breathing room for a tough match. The way Julián and Griezmann ran… the work of Llorente, Nahuel, and Koke, Matteo’s incredible performance… how the substitutes came in. It gave us tremendous strength.”
“It’s the fourth, yes. Playing a Champions League semifinal… wow, that’s great. We’ll go in with all our enthusiasm and faith. We know our strengths and our weaknesses. We have a lot of faith, we’re prepared, and we’ll go after what we’ve been chasing for many years.”
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“I don’t care. We need to rest—we have a final coming up on Saturday.”
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