Atletico Madrid may well have the most in form number nine in Spain, and to pair with him, they have arguably the form player ini La Liga too. On Tuesday evening, Celtic were put to the sword in ruthless fashion, as both grabbed braces, although Griezmann’s had the added level of difficulty in that it came from midfield.
Diego Simeone went with an attacking line-up featuring Angel Correa in attack with Morata, Griezmann in midfield with Koke Resurreccion and Pablo Barrios, while Rodrigo Riquelme was on the left flank.
It took Griezmann just under five minutes to open the scoring with a fine finish from his deeper position, and afterwards he told Diario AS that he was learning about the position.
“It is different. I do it in the national team and today I had to do it here. Playing as a midfielder means stealing the ball, assisting your teammate and today I was lucky enough to score a goal.”
“It is a position in the middle where you need to move the ball, assist, get to the box. Wherever they put me, in the middle or at up front, I try to do what I have to do in the position. I’m learning, I watch a lot of football on TV and whatever it takes for the club and for Cholo.”
“You must learn, you learn tricks of what the players do and you can always improve in everything. In La Liga there are very good midfielders and we are learning.”
Griezmann would go on to score a falling overhead kick before being withdrawn, and was given player of the match. As a general rule, Simeone gives Griezmann freedom to move as he sees fit, but the Frenchman did not look out of place against Celtic as a more orthodox central midfielder. On several occasions he could be seen making tackles back in his own box, proving the defensive side of things was no isssue either.
