Cholo ‘hurt’ watching CL final

Diego Simeone has admitted he was pained to watch the Champions League final between Barcelona and Juventus as it brought back memories of a year ago.

Cholo’s Atletico Madrid were moments away from completing a League and Champions League double before Sergio Ramos equalised for Real Madrid.

Madrid went on to win 4-1 and Simeone has told AS that while he doesn’t dwell on what happened in Lisbon, the Berlin showpiece did bring back the feelings from 2014.

“Our final is out of my mind. It hurt more when I saw Saturday’s game, when I saw both Barca and Juve could win. A year ago we were in that situation, with an equal chance of winning. What happened to Juventus happened to us,” he recalled.

“These are games decided in the detail. If I hadn’t picked Diego Costa I would have regretted it my whole life. I didn’t expect Costa would get cramp. After 20 minutes I’d used two changes out of three.

“But we were three minutes from being champions of Europe against a team that now has 10 Champions Leagues and we have none. Football has these wonderful and painful things. One day you enjoy a situation and one day you suffer from others.”

Simeone was asked if there was anything he would change about this season’s Champions League quarter-final, where Atleti were beaten by Real Madrid.

“No. I’d play with a super attacking team. With Koke, Tiago Mendes, Saul Niguez, Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic. Training was designed to have the ball with Koke and Saul and players who could score,” he reflected.

“I opted to take out the captain, Gabi, for Saul, and for the risk that was. I’m the Coach and I assume that risk. And Gabi played 45 minutes of the second half [in the second leg at Santiago Bernabeu].

“I think we took the tie to a place where we could have said ‘we could have won at Real Madrid.’ And then Arda Turan was sent off and it was no longer a contest. They scored in the 178th minute of 180. It’s easy to talk about what happened.

“I’d ask you to think about what might have happened if we had played differently. Would we have reached the 178th minute? That’s doubtful, because it’s easy to say it afterwards.”

Simeone then went on to argue that his teams aren’t defensively minded and that whatever he had done against Madrid, he would have come under fire if the result had gone against Atleti.

“We always pick players to create scoring situations, rather than defend. Adrian against Chelsea [in 2013-14] is an example. And he scored. Raul Garcia didn’t play because be understood a game like that needed a player like Adrian,” the trainer maintained.

“Football is wonderful because it always gives us the chance to talk about alternatives. At Vicente Calderon we played with David Villa and Adrian against Barcelona. What changed from the Champions League quarter-finals, the Europa League Final or the European Super Cup? Not a lot.

“We always play with players for the game we imagine. The game [against Madrid] wasn’t what we imagined. For the first time, we didn’t play well. I was able to play with Raul Garcia, Fernando Torres and Gabi, but if I had picked them I would have been criticised for not picking a team better with the ball. Football gives everyone the chance to talk.”

Tags Diego Simeone
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