Simeone: "We played with courage and pride "
Diego Pablo Simeone spoke to the media in the press room after the one all draw against Valencia. The Argentine acknowledged that Valencia "had good chances" but the "courage" of Atletico set up a "significant" game in the second leg.
Simeone made a brief assessment on the first leg of the knockout stages of the Copa del Rey. "It was a game of two teams with different characteristics. A team with possession, brave and attacking in Valencia. In the first half they created fewer chances in the second half, after our goal, they had more. On the other hand, there was a team that fought with pride and courage, which failed to be beat on the counterattack as expected but with a strong effort during the 90 minutes we got an important result and there is a 50 percent chance on Tuesday," he said.
The characteristics of Atleti players is worthy of admiration, as Simeone acknowledged. "To me, it fills me with pride the commitment and effort the players have. They play Champions League or Cup and whether they are playing well or badly, they are allway giving everything. That's an added value and as a coach it makes me happy," he said.
Courtois was one of the biggest names in the game with some great stops while Raul Garcia got his goal. "Courtois’ level is always very good. Raul is a player with a great effort, we both know he gives his best for the group. But besides him Adrian is right up there and Sosa's arrival will make us grow and gives us reason to be more optimistic. We try to keep improving," he said.
Finally, Diego Pablo Simeone stressed that now he is only thinking about Barcelona, and once the game finishes on Saturday, Atletico will prepare the second leg of the cup match. "In the same way that this game did not affect Saturdays game, Saturdays game will not affect next Tuesday. We are aware that every game is competition and different. It is the psychic, if you win you are happy and if you lose you are angry and we want to win" he said.
