Simeone: “The result was good, but the qualifying round is open”
Diego Pablo Simeone highlighted the great match that both teams played, always looking for a victory with their weapons they had. The coach from Buenos Aires expects a difficult second leg in the Calderón where they will compete at the highest level.
The Atletico coach admitted “I’m leaving happy with the effort and the result is good, although everything is in the air”. Once again, the work of all the team was key in obtaining a valuable tie in the Camp Nou. “The team has done an enormous job in a match where the competing teams have very different styles. Each has done what suited them best”, he said.
The second leg in the Calderón "will be a very hard and exciting match". Regarding the favourite, SImeone reiterated “if we say it’s us, we’ll be arrogant; if we say it’s halfway or for them, we’ll be the victims. We’ll compete because the matches against them have been very good”, he assured.
I’m satisfied for the enormous job of all the team
Diego Costa’s injury altered the plans due to the speed in the attack of Atlético’s number 19. “We lost speed in the front”. “We’ll see what the tests say regarding the amount of time he’s out. We’ll make use of Raúl García, Villa, Adrián”, he pointed out.
Diego Pablo valued Diego’s performance as very positive “He played a whole match and I’m happy. He needed it and the team needed him”. Regarding Courtois’ performance, he recognised "he did a great intervention, like Diego, like Gabi, like all the team".
To finish, Simeone warned that Barcelona “has played as usual. A lot of possession, playing between the lines, a lot of one-on-one, big replacement possibilities, Alexis, Pedro out... I like to face Barça because you learn and improve”, he emphasized.
