Diego Simeone will be hoping Atletico Madrid can continue their excellent recent form and secure a place in the top eight of the Champions League, but he remains wary of the challenges ahead.
Atletico won a tenth game in a row as they edged past Slovan Bratislava 3-1 at home on Wednesday, a result that leaves them one point outside the top eight, with games against Bayer Leverkusen and RB Salzburg still to come.
It is Atletico's longest winning streak in more than a decade, having won 13 in a row between August and October 2012.
“There are still two games to go and they are very good teams,” said Simeone. “We are up against Leverkusen, one of the best in the league, and we will see how far we can go.
“We are going to give the maximum and see what the sum of our points gets us.”
Julian Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann, who scored a double, helped Atletico to victory against Slovan, although Simeone conceded a penalty that briefly gave him the jitters as the visitors made it 2-1.
“The effort was there,” he said of Wednesday's performance. “The first half was controlled, with important chances, and in the second it was also controlled after that penalty.
“The players did well and we won a game where we cared a lot about the three points.”
Last 10 games: 10 wins pic.twitter.com/yqDfL0cglI
— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) December 11, 2024
Atletico were fantastic in their ten-match winning run, scoring thirty goals in that run, effectively putting their slow start to the season behind them.
“It is football and football twists, changes, with difficult moments and others that make you become very good. We know what we have [in the team]where we're going, and we're always trying to improve.”
Wednesday's game was notable for the fact that both coaches had their sons on the field at one point. Giuliano Simeone started for Atletico, while Slovenian coach Vladimir Weiss brought on his son, also Vladimir, in the final six minutes.
“I think as the coach [Weiss] chose to turn on the player, he didn't think to turn on his son. Like me, neither of us have seen them as sons, we see them as footballers,” Simeone added.
Of the teams that have scored more than 100 goals in the Champions League, only Lionel Messi (20.4% for Barcelona) has scored a higher percentage of a club's goals in the competition than Griezmann for Atletico (19% – 36/ 189).
All his Champions League goals for the Rojiblancos have come under Simeone's guidance. Only Messi under Pep Guardiola (43) and Mohamed Salah under Jurgen Klopp (41) have scored more goals in the league under the same manager.
“The Champions League is complicated, goals are very important,” Griezmann said. “It's a shame about the penalty. In the second half we let them have the ball a lot. As always, these are things that can be improved, but we are on the right track.”
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