Diego Simeone insists that he is still optimistic about the title opportunities of Atletico Madrid, despite the suffering of a heavy 4-2 LABERA defeat against Barcelona on Sunday.
Atletico had a 2-0 lead in the 70th minute thanks to Julian Alvarez and Alexander Sorloth, but Hansi Flick's side organized a comeback in the Metropolitano.
Ferran Torres scored a brace, with Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal also on the score sheet to send Barcelona to the top of the LaLiga table at 70 points.
Barcelona is above Real Madrid because of having a better head-to-head record, but have a competition in hand about Los Blancos. Atletico is third in 56 points.
The OPTA -SUPERCOMMUTER now gives Atletico only a 2.9% chance to win LaLiga this season, with Barcelona the favorites at 68.5% (Madrid – 28.5%).
“We will fight until the end. There are still 10 games left and we have to play and they all win,” Simeone told Dazn.
“It's not happiness,” said the coach. “It is due to hard work. I wouldn't put it down. We have to recognize the rival.”
Simeone spoke about fatigue after their defeat of Champions League through the hands of City Rivals Madrid, as well as the health of Vooruit Julian Alvarez, whose slip during the penalty shootout of that match led him to touch twice in his goal that was not allowed.
Nevertheless, Alvarez scored the first goal in a LaLiga match for the eighth time this season, with only Lewandoski (nine) that did more on more occasions.
“A few days ago he had a bad stomach, yesterday he had a fever and this morning he had belly problems again,” said Simeone on Alvarez.
“I didn't want to play him, we spoke, he was dedicated and I understood that he had definitely given everything.”
The coach also restored a missed opportunity to change tactics after his team rang 2-0, which indicates a few minutes in which he might have achieved a more favorable result.
There were just over two minutes that the goals from Sorloth and Lewandowski separate, where Torres equalized six minutes later for the hosts.
“In football, those four or five minutes are unforgivable,” said Simeone in a press conference.
“At that moment I pushed to finish the game, the boys responded and I just didn't have time. It was too late.”
Comments