2023-09-25 02:50:40
“The important thing is that the team recovers its spirit, its desire to play,” Simeone admitted after the match. A match in which he devoured his rival with an overwhelming start in each half that the Madridistas could not overcome. «There was a very strong communion, a stadium that accompanied and was felt. It is not easy when these situations come together,” explained Cholo. The team pushed like never before and the Metropolitano sounded like it only sounds on big occasions.
Atlético found the success of Morata and the play of Griezmann and between the two they finished off a match in which Real Madrid was almost always away. «Throughout my time we have had great footballers. Griezmann has no difficulty in going back, in suffering, in playing the game he plays. That is why he is one of the most important players on the team,” explains the Atlético coach, who does not value him only for what he is capable of doing on the field but also for the example he is for the younger players on the team, “as “Riquelme and Lino.”
Ancelotti sought to control a game that was never his. An idea that was reflected in the lineup in the presence of Kroos and Modric from the beginning. The two veterans had not met since the beginning this season and the experiment did not go too well. “I wanted more ball control, that’s why I put one more half,” said the Italian coach. But the game was almost always played as Atlético wanted.
In that scheme, Bellingham was a forward next to Rodrygo. An invention that also did not work with the English always receiving their backs. «The spaces were reduced and I think that the non-presence of Joselu left him less possibilities of arriving, when he took advantage of Joselu’s aerial game. We control it better, it is extraordinary,” Simeone analyzed. Although he was never calm with the result. «Madrid shows on the field that something can always happen. Luckily the 3-1 took away that space where they are better, with 2-1 and stage fright. For us this victory is very important », he explained.
For Real Madrid, the defeat is the first of the season and leaves the leadership in the hands of Barcelona. For Atlético, the victory is the sign that the season is not ending soon, as it did last year. Although with one less game – the postponed one against Sevilla is still pending – a victory for Real Madrid would have left the red and whites eleven points behind the lead. And with the ghosts of last season lurking. That is why what happened in the derby is so important for Simeone. For the three points achieved and for how he got them. And so it also serves as reinforcement for footballers like Samuel Lino, who gave two assists on goals.
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