Simeone: "It’ll be an important and entertaining game"

Regarding if he sees a League with five candidates to win it, Simeone commented, "you see that better than me. We’re here to speak about the game that we have to play tomorrow. Sevilla is a rival that has strengthened very well. I told you when we were in Cádiz, the team is very balanced, with many important players in different lines. And that makes them a very competitive team, as we have seen. Emery’s work is very good, as it usually is with the teams with which he’s worked with for some time. Tomorrow’s will be an important, entertaining game, with two teams that, possibly, play with many similarities in many situations", he said.

Emery praised Simeone in the press conference given by Sevilla’s coach, and the red and white replied, "I’m grateful to my colleagues when they give this type of opinions. I repeat the same thing to him. Since we arrived we’ve seen him compete with Valencia, which he placed in the third place coveted by teams such as Valencia, Sevilla, Athletic or ourselves and kept Valencia there for three years in a row. Today, in Sevilla, over time, he’s made them competitive. He’s won the Europa League and was competing very well with Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup in the first half. Today, they’re a fighting team and that speaks very well of the coach and of a team that follows the coach".

Asked about Griezmann and his adaptation to the team, "he's a very important player for us and we need him at his best. I think when the players manage to have continuity in the game, they’re more important than when they don’t have much continuity. And we need continuity in the game. He’s a player that can score, who gives his team more presence in the attack, who can play one-on-one, who can play in different places... In short, a player that we need at his best and who’s at a normal period because he’s young. With all due respect, Atlético de Madrid is not like Real Sociedad, because the demand is different. He’s in a period of showing all the good things he has. I hope I have him with more continuity, which is what we need", he said.

He goes back to sitting on the bench after the suspension. The coach states "all I want is a stadium devoted to their players. I want fans responding as they always do in an important match for us. Tomorrow I imagine a crowded stadium. They know it. The more they participate, it’s felt, because I experienced it as a player and now as a coach”.