After being on the wrong end of a 4-0 spanking at the Emirates Stadium, Atlético Madrid coach Diego Simeone praised Arsenal and questioned his own team in the post-game press conference.
The coach was trying to be optimistic, but he said his team lacked the decisiveness and composure to take anything from its first visit to North London this decade.
“Dirst, the positives: we competed very well until the first goal, after that, we could have defended better, whereas they did it very well, and they scored
a lot of goals,” Simeone said.
He went on to explain that “set pieces are very important in football, especially in these competitions, where every detail determines who will take control of the match … it’s not bad luck, it’s mistakes.
“They were decisive, better, and in 20 minutes every shot on goal they had was a goal,” Simeone continued. “Julián’s shot in the first half, the one that hit the crossbar (was a missed opportunity). The team competed well, but this match teaches us the details in the passages of play are decisive, this time against us.”
Diego Simeone on Alexander Sørloth
“Alex did a good job in what we asked of him: covering (Martin) Zubimendi and looking for runs into space, which we were unable to develop much because we didn’t have the speed to get out. His performance was good in terms of what was asked of him. It wasn’t a decision based on defensive set pieces, but rather on one-on-one duels, creating chances in the box, having a presence. That didn’t happen because the team didn’t help him, but he did what he had to do.”
Diego Simeone on shipping four goals in 13 minutes
“Individual mistakes that affected the team as a whole: a marker losing his man, not committing a foul… At 3-0, there was a scramble that we contested weakly, not strongly, and it ended in a rebound… These are small details that make the game go one way or the other.”
Diego Simeone expanding on those ‘‘small details”
“It’s traditional football. You don’t work on it, you have it inside you. When situations can be resolved collectively, we work on them. But the individual is more difficult. We work so that the collective tries to cover the individual.”
Diego Simeone on comparisons to the Benfica loss last year
“It has nothing in common with last year’s 4-0 against Benfica. It was different. In that match, we didn’t shoot at goal, we didn’t have a plan. This time we did: we competed as best we could. Arsenal are better at the moment, we have to congratulate them, accept it, and this helps us to learn and grow.”
