Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has praised La Liga rivals Barcelona as the pair prepare to do battle on Wednesday night.
The Argentine said that his team has rarely matched Barcelona in terms of quality, despite being one of the few teams able to compete with the Catalan outfit.
“They have the most decisive players both individually and as a unit, and that puts them in an incredible position. They won everything apart from the Champions League last season.”
“Every game we lost, it was because Barcelona deserved to win.”
“And when we drew it’s because we deserved to draw. But we never deserved to win on the basis of the 90 minutes. Maybe early on in some Champions League games, when we scored first, but not 90 minutes. They were better and deserved to win.”
El Cholo says his side was more focused on their own improvement rather closing the gap on the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
“[We] just to try to improve as much as we feel is necessary. The new players give us new options in midfield and attack, because they offer different characteristics,” he added.
With the squad we’ve put together we can continue to improve. But we need to show that in actions. Not words. And we’ll do that by worrying about ourselves and not what other teams are doing.”
Atleti take on Barcelona this Wednesday night, 10pm local time.
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