Simeone: ‘Atletico Madrid played the game we wanted with Inter’

Diego Simeone insists this was ‘the sport we needed’ after Atletico Madrid suffered a slim defeat to Inter with out getting a single shot on course. ‘I imagine we are able to flip it round.’

Atleti set themselves out attempting to neutralise their opponents on their very own turf on this Champions League Spherical of 16 tie, hoping to assault extra within the second leg on the Wanda Metropolitano on March 13.

Marko Arnautovic had a number of gilt-edged scoring alternatives earlier than he lastly broke the impasse from a decent angle, gathering the rebound from a Jan Oblak save on Lautaro Martinez.

“I believe it was the sport we needed. We got here very near getting one thing right here, we made a giant mistake and so they made probably the most of it with the aim,” Simeone instructed Sky Sport Italia.

“In addition they pounced on different conditions the place we misplaced the ball in our midfield, however general we performed the best way we needed to, closed off most of their assaults and had just a few probabilities of our personal.

“We’re relaxed, we go into the second leg and can see what occurs there. The necessary factor is to enhance in our passing, cease giving it away the place they’ll harm us on the counter-attack, and we are able to flip this round.”

Cholo was making his return to San Siro, the place he performed for Inter and was teammates with Simone Inzaghi at Lazio earlier than then, so the 2 males know one another very properly certainly.

“I like him, he’s lad and I’m proud of all the great issues which can be taking place to him. However I nonetheless imagine Atletico can flip this round! We have now to give attention to Almeria subsequent and we’ve got many different massive video games earlier than that comes round.”

Alvaro Morata was solely match for a spot on the bench, however he got here on and virtually discovered the web with a glancing header off track.

#ChampionsLeague | #InterAtleticoMadrid, #Simeone: “Voglio bene a #Inzaghi ma c’è ancora il ritorno”https://t.co/xCxiaanxtK

— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) February 20, 2024