Diego Simeone, the manager of Atlético Madrid, spoke about the upcoming clash between his side and Barcelona, scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.
Simeone began Tuesday’s pre-match press conference by discussing Antoine Griezmann and whether he is the best player he has ever coached: “I’m very grateful to him. He used to be a winger who just ran along the line… We started talking to him about playing deeper… He’s in amazing physical condition. I consider him one of the best footballers I’ve ever coached.”
On his motivational talks with Griezmann: “We’ve spoken many times. I’m his manager and he’s always shown me that affection. He tells me how he feels, and I understand that… and then comes the match.”
On facing Barcelona under manager Hansi Flick: “They’re a formidable opponent. We know their capabilities, and that they’ve lost just one game out of the 23 they’ve played. We’re here to compete, and to drag the opposition into the area where we can hurt them.”
He touched on Barcelona’s weakness: “I hope we can show that tomorrow from 9 am (the time of the final training session), and that you can see it on the pitch. We know who we’re up against. We need to keep moving forward, and it doesn’t matter who stands in our way.”
On the fact that Atlético Madrid attack better than they defend: “All teams that attack better tend to defend worse, and Barcelona are one of them. They have the ability to score a lot of goals, and that suits their style of play. We’re going through the same process; at the moment, we attack better than we defend.”
As for the players facing suspension: “I’m not interested in or concerned about the issue of cautions (yellow cards).”
He also spoke about the idea of bringing Griezmann on: “The idea of bringing Antoine on occurred to me six hours ago. It was an opportunity to put the coach aside and let the human side come through.”
When asked about goalkeeper Jan Oblak’s condition, he replied: “He’s training well, but he still needs a bit of time, so Juan Musso will play. We hope he’ll be ready for the Sevilla match.”
He concluded by talking about his dream of winning the Champions League: "I'm only thinking about the match against Barcelona tomorrow."