Diego Simeone conceded Atletico Madrid were “absolutely dominated” by Barcelona during Saturday’s La Liga showdown at the Vicente Calderon.
Fernando Torres saw his opening goal quickly wiped out by strikes from Neymar and Lionel Messi as the Catalans ran out 2-1 winners, and the Coach admitted Los Colchoneros struggled to impose themselves on the match.
“Apart from the first 15 minutes of the second half, Barcelona absolutely dominated the match,” he said after the game.
“Barca are a team who pose a significant threat going forward. We tried to come out in the first half and the second, but it wasn’t possible. Barcelona were better.
“Barcelona were better when they had space, with the ball and applied more pressure.
“We tried push up a little higher, but the truth is we didn’t have a good match.
“We created the situation for our goal at the start of the second half, which was finished off well by Torres, but we didn’t build on it.
“We wanted to play the way we did at the start of the second half from the beginning, but we didn’t use space or the ball well enough.
“[Messi] was decisive. He’s used to making the difference in games and did so again.
“[Torres] did a great job in applying pressure and scored a good goal, which is very important for him.”
