Before our Europa League Round of 16 first leg clash in the Wanda Metropolitano against Lokomotiv Moscow, Koke and Diego Pablo Simeone spoke to the press.

“This is an exciting competition” Koke said. “It’ll be a difficult match and we’ll have to play well.”

Koke knows how important it is to get a good result against Lokomotiv in the Wanda Metropolitano.

“We have to play well tomorrow in the Wanda Metropolitano,” he said. “We want to take a good result to Russia.”

Lokomotiv Moscow are in first place in the Russian Premier League and eliminated Nice in the Round of 32 to qualify for this stage of the competition.

“Lokomotiv are a team with courage and heart,” our boss said. “They were losing 2-0 against Nice and turned it around to win 3-2. I have a lot of respect for Yuri Semin [Lokomotiv's coach].”

Simeone expects a difficult match and knows Lokomotiv will complicate things for our side.

“I don’t think Lokomotiv rely on just one player,” he continued. “They play like a team.”