Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has given a surprise nod to Real Madrid in European competition, following his side’s tight victory over Feyenoord.
Los Colchoneros came out on top following a thrilling 3-2 win over Feyenoord, in which Simeone’s side went behind twice in the match. That was one of four Spanish wins in the Champions League this week, but Simeone was asked whether he felt that Atletico’s struggles in Europe were down to them, or if it was a larger problem for La Liga.
“I’ll say what I think it. For me, except for Real Madrid, who have fantastic players, they manage to compete in Europe extraordinarily because it has extraordinary players, a lot of young players, Camavinga, Bellingham, Tchouameni, Vinicius, Rodrygo… evidently it allows them to compete in the best way,” he told Diario AS.
“I think all the other teams, it’s difficult for us. We saw it was difficult for Sevilla, it was difficult for Barcelona in recent years, now they have started better, and we’ll see how we do, and it is difficult for us.”
“We handled the match with Lazio well, we went to sleep at the end, today we managed to avoid the dizzying scenario with the rival goalkeeper going up for the header, and that fear of ‘it’s going to happen again’. But it didn’t happen. They scored two goals against us and we have to recognise the difficulties we have, I think it’s good to do so, we are dealing with a lot of adversity, but we have to improve. We have to improve.”
Certainly no other side has looked as capable of going toe-to-toe with the strongest sides in Europe in recent years, although Sevilla continue to secure results whenever they are in the Europa League. Atletico and Barcelona continue to struggle in Europe, but both appear to moving forwards once again, and Simeone and Xavi will be hoping to reverse the trajectory from last season, which for both sides was perhaps their most disappointing European campaigns in some time.
