‘Atletico training with 10’ – Partey

Atletico Madrid’s Thomas Partey has explained his side have trained ’10 against 11’ ahead of the Europa League semi-final against Arsenal.

Diego Simeone’s side were reduced to 10 men in the early stages of the first leg after Croatian full-back Sime Vrsaljko was dismissed for two bookable offences.

“The thing about Simeone that a lot of people don't know is that his instincts are always right,” Thomas explained in an interview with The Indepenent.

“We trained playing 10 against 11 the day before the game and he kept telling us that we might end up a man down and it came earlier than expected.

“I don't know what other clubs do, but every training session is a battle here because the team keeps changing based on how hard you train and perform in games.

“The tie is not over but of course, not to sound arrogant, we know what we have to do to get to the final.

“They have their mission to sign off (manager, Arsene) Wenger very well, but we also have to continue to ensure that every season we are among the best in Europe and that is where our fire comes from.”

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