Simeone: "The players understand how to play here"
The Atletico coach praised the work of his players and spoke of how his men understand how to achieve success in a difficult scenario.
Diego Pablo Simeone led his 50th game in the league in El Sadar stadium and could not have celebrated any better way than with a 2-0 victory thanks to two goals from Diego Costa to keep his team in the fight for second place . The Argentine was pleased with the effort of his men in a match that he defined in the following way. "We are pleased with the effort of the players. It wasn’t an easy game. You had to know how to play in this field. If you don’t play the right way here, you’ve got more chance of losing than winning. We went out from the first munite and played the right way. We took advantage of the situation we had and that generated chances, in the second half we could have killed off the game with the chances we had."
Again, Atletico kept a clean sheet, but the victory for Simeone he said was tactical and mental. "As long as the team wins without conceding it’s a good sign. I want to highlight the match in strength, activity. The players understand how to play here, there's no other way. Osasuna is a tough opponent that is powerful. We played the way we wanted and took our chances, "said Simeone, who though the match wasn’t decided until the referee blew the final whistle. "The match was never dead. They had many chances especially from corners and on one occasion forced a good save out of Courtois in the first half. It's a good result, important for the team, thanks to good teamwork," he said.
Another game and Diego Costa was the star of the show with a performance which he capped off with two goals in the victory. "You have to keep growing. He's in good form. Hopefully he can continue to grow. You have to think he has weapons to do si," he said.
After this game, the league will stop due to international commitments, but Atletico will continue to work to maintain their run of form. Simeone does not want his team to rest on its laurels. "We’ll try to keep going game by game. We are expecting a tough opponent in 15 days and we’ll see how the players do for their national teams. It will be a difficult game against Valencia. The team has shown regularly, and competitiveness. We need to continue on the same line," he said Simeone.
