Diego Pablo Simeone fiercely celebrated his team's victory against Espanyol. The effort of his players had been titanic. "Once again, I feel great joy by the response of the team. The first half was good and we had done well. Following the sending off we are left with Costa on the left so that Arda had good diagonal on the other wing. The effort was extraordinary. The thing I am happy with is the attitude and the willingness of those who came in to a difficult. What we achieved today was down to great collective work", he summarized.

The sending off of Gabi conditioned the way Atletico played in the second half. "We responded fantastically. The Centre backs were exceptional Falcao did very well. Tiago showed commitment. Arda showed his talent. The full backs were able to defend the pressure. It was a great collective effort", said the Argentine.

The victory against Espanyol is the 12th at home this season. No opponent has scored points in this season's visits to the Calderon. "We live from game to game. We have always given the idea and intention of being competitive. Sometimes we do better, others worse but I think people value and want to see that the squad is delivering. Today we delivered and the fans response was great. The team always conveys the history of this club", said the coach.

After the victory, the rojiblancos return to the Cup semifinals against Sevilla next Wednesday. "We're going to face a major rival in an openknock out gamen. We’ll try to eat well, train well and do the normal routine. I hope we have a good response like we always have had", he said.

Simeone recognized that. "We had 2 bad games half games, one against Rayo & one againt Rubin when we weren’t ourselves. In other matches, despite not winning, the team showed his identity, the intensity and aggressiveness returned against Valladolid", concluded the Argentine.