Diego Simeone believes Saul Niguez’s hard work is reaping rewards after his stunning goal for Atletico Madrid against Bayern Munich.
Saul scored the only goal of the Champions League semi-final first leg at Vicente Calderon to give Atleti a lead to take to Germany next week in a game Simeone felt was of the proverbial two halves.
“This isn’t the moment to count the intimate moments between Saul and myself. Everything good that is happening to him is for his work and his quality. It was a great individual play. Saul has a lot of versatility, he can play in different positions, he is very complete and that satisfies me. What happens is a result of his effort,” AS quotes Cholo as saying.
“I saw his goal quite well. He did well with the first dribble and that gave him the chance with the second. I didn’t see any more after that.
“Saul for Spain? I’m very respectful of [Vicente del Bosque] and I can’t answer that question.”
Simeone, who confirmed he wasn’t challenging his three-game La Liga touchline ban, was asked about the character of his squad and picked some recent examples to show how much being part of Atletico means to his players.
“I can tell the people about some intimate situations. Tiago Mendes on Tuesday was asked if he wanted to be with the group and he said yes,” the Coach revealed, the midfielder still recovering from a broken leg.
“[Yannick] Carrasco wanted to play. Oliver [Torres] had fever and flu and told me, when he was in the squad, ‘Coach, I’m not in the right condition.’ This is Atletico today.”
