Diego Simeone reveals behind the scenes of the robbery against Barça

This is what we call a robbery. This Saturday evening, Atlético de Madrid played Atlético de Madrid against FC Barcelona. Dominated for almost 90 minutes, Diego Simeone's team managed to win at the last second (2-1). A crazy success marked by incredible saves from Jan Oblak to keep his team alive and a lethal finish (3 shots on target, 2 goals) from the attackers. A recipe that visibly works for Diego Simeone who has once again adopted the strategy of defending as a unit to spring counterattacks.

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And it could have been a total flop as Barça controlled the match and created numerous chances. But once again, the Argentine coach was able to exult after the match, especially since this victory gave his team first place in the championship. “I’m happy, I can’t lie. The team suffered. Barcelona play very well, they attack all the time. Today, we had an excellent defensive evening with several players, Oblak in the lead. This allowed us to survive. (…) I have no doubt that not all the matches lost by Barcelona deserved to be lost. With Leganés and Las Palmas they had a lot of chances to score, but football knows these kinds of situations. When the goal doesn’t come, it starts to become a problem.”he said before highlighting his team's performance in the second period. “The second half was more competitive. We had De Paul's goal which brought the score to 1-1. They had a lot of chances. We were lucky to be consistent. You can be messy attacking so much. The team was patient and took advantage of a counter-attack to score a great goal. Sorloth’s goal is a great goal.”

A united team in pain

It is true that the entry of the Norwegian giant was decisive. Because his play with his back to goal really hurt the Barcelona defense who were having a great evening so far. In all the good shots, he gave victory to his team by shooting Pena by taking back a fleeing cross that was clearly not easy. “Sorloth is cold. We spoke with him three or four weeks ago. If we took too long to get closer and show him what I'm like, we were going to lose him for six months. He interpreted it in the best way. He gets us out of trouble, he gets us out of the shadows. Fortunately, we had a great victory today.” said Diego Simeone on his attacker. But the boss of Atlético de Madrid above all explained how his team was able to get out each time in this kind of situation. For him, no doubt, it's mainly because the players are united and fight as a team.

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“The players are ready for the competition. What is strongest is the group. The group shows it in practice. Changes, when they occur, are really felt. This is what we coaches want. We want everyone to be on the same page. Our way to compete with two monsters like Madrid and Barça is to have the whole team playing well. We found each other little by little. We must support the players in what they do well and try to improve and structure them. We need to see that the team can improve. We went to Paris and the same thing happened as today. This is what the club has left as a legacy to all the players who have been here.” Heritage is probably what most characterizes this Colchoneros team which seems to have a real DNA that endures over time. To the delight of Diego Simeone…