Diego Simeone says he is “proud” of his nine-man Atletico Madrid after they limited Barcelona to a 2-1 win in La Liga on Saturday.
Koke’s early goal was cancelled out by Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, but Los Colchoneros then lost Filipe Luis and Diegno Godin to red cards, and the Coach was delighted with the manner in which his players battled to keep the Catalans at bay.
“We’re always positive and I got a lot of good things [from our performance], even though the defeat hurts,” he said after the game.
“I’m proud of the players. If I’m not mistaken, the team managed to press high, had good positional play and didn’t lose their heads [in the opening 35 minutes].
“There were then 10 minutes, when Barcelona began to grow, had two chances and scored two.
“We had a very good game, except for that 10-minute passage, when Barcelona scored twice.
“If I had to lose, I’d always prefer to do so in this manner.
“I saw Barcelona to still be very strong, with their firepower in attack.
“These are three important points for them. There’s also a lot of the season left, but they never usually stumble.
“[On Augusto Fernandez’s injury], hopefully it’s something minor. We’ll evaluate him [on Sunday].”
