Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone after Barcelona exit – ‘We have to accept our place’ | OneFootball

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone was rather sanguine in defeat after Barcelona knocked them out of the Copa del Rey in the second leg of the semi-final. For many, that was their last real shot at a title this season, now nine points back in La Liga.

There was no shortage of disappointment at the final whistle, exemplified by defender Jose Maria Gimenez, who felt that they did not approach the game the right way in the first half.

“I apologize to the Atletico Madrid fans for throwing away the first half. If we had gone out onto the field with the second half’s mentality…” he told Cadena Cope.

Words that did not go down especially well with Simeone, who was relayed the statement, said ‘ask Jose’. ‘Be more effective’ was his only response to what they lacked, and he maintained that Atletico were having a good season.

Simeone was much more verbose in his press conference thereafter.

“We didn’t have a good first half, but not one to apologise for. In football, you go through situations where the opponent is superior. That happened in the first half. In the second half, we corrected a lot of things, competed very well, and were could have tied the score. They were able to improve the score and we competed very well against a great opponent. And it can happen that at some point they are superior to you,” Simeone explained to Diario AS.

His half-time team talk focused on the fact that Atletico were still in the match, despite the first half that Gimenez thought so little of.

“We weren’t having a good first half, and they’d passed up chances and allowed us to survive. That gave us optimism and the opportunity to face the second half with more courage. They went out, we were closer, the opponent is playing very well. I’ve been saying for a while now that I like the way Barcelona plays, and we competed very well in the four games we played against them.”

Simeone was asked when and what it would take for Atletico to reach the level of Barcelona and Real Madrid, who will decide Spain’s two major trophies this season.

“The club is pure growth. We’ve brought in some very good players who are performing at a very high level. We had a fantastic Champions League, a fantastic Copa del Rey, we’re competing well in La Liga, and I’m not budging from that. We have to accept the place we are in, and continue getting closer to the big ones.”

Los Colchoneros are now closer to Athletic Club in fourth than they are to Real Madrid in second, with just four points separating them from Los Leones. They face a difficult trip to Sevilla next, but there will no doubt be plenty of soul-searching at Atletico Madrid in the next few weeks too. Atletico were in the hunt for three trophies less than a month ago, and now look like finishing the season empy-handed. Simeone was adamant before the second leg that it had been a good season too, calling failure a ‘broad word’.