Cholo downplays penalty incident

Diego Simeone has played down Atletico Madrid’s failure to win a penalty this season and does not want focus upon it.

The officials appeared to miss a foul by Athletic Bilbao defender Unai Nunez on Diego Costa inside the area, with Los Rojiblancos not being awarded a single spot-kick this campaign.

“I don’t like talking about this as the more it is mentioned, it will become worse of the officials,” Simeone told reporters after the game regarding the record.

“They will arrive at our games thinking about that stat, with people telling them and informing them and if that’s the case, the less likely they will reward us with anything.

“I am happy with the squad, we are on the right path and our players are competitive – Thomas stepped in for Juanfran today and epitomised the commitment that we want.

“Our forwards are in good form – Gameiro offered us pace and goals in the final third when he came on, and Griezmann can see their (Gameiro and Costa’s) movements.

“Our aim was always to open the scoring and when we did, it became better in terms of us scoring again.”

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