“We played the way we had to in the second half”

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone considered on Sunday, after his side's 1-1 draw with Rayo, that he was “concerned, rather than worried” about his team's first half, which “are game situations that can happen”, but remarked that his team played in the second half the way they had to and generated “that adrenaline” of being able to “win” at “any moment”. 

“I think that in the first half we had more chances. They scored the goal and in the second half we played the way we had to, with intensity, protagonism, with a lot of people in the opponent's half, attacking in different ways with different players, generating that adrenaline that seemed that at any moment we could win the game,” he said at a press conference.

“I always keep the positive things. They were seen in the second half. We had conceded a goal in a stretch where we had not played well, but we had had goal situations. You could see that the team needed what we did; to put more players in the offensive part. Gallagher's goal was very nice. We had dangerous situations to be able to solve better in the last yards”, he declared.

In the second half, he changed the formation to 4-2-3-1. “The players are marking you. I follow what the team asks for. In the first half, we didn't play a good game, but we generated goal situations. It was clear that we had to give the team a little more tools to follow that tone,” he explained.

 

September 22, 2024