‘Their greatest strength…’: Simeone hails Flick ahead of Barcelona vs Atletico, confirms defender’s absence | OneFootball

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid will square off on Tuesday night in a heavyweight clash in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.

The Rojiblancos have already beaten Hansi Flick’s men once this season in Montjuic, securing a 2-1 win in their last game of 2024, and will return to the stadium hoping for a repeat.

Ahead of the game, Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone spoke to the media where he praised his Barcelona counterpart Hansi Flick, while also confirming the absence of a veteran player for the trip to Catalonia.

Simeone on Flick, Barcelona

Talking about the semi-final first leg, Simeone kicked things off by saying: “We face these games with illusion and enthusiasm and we focus on the game we are playing now, in this case Barcelona.”

“It’s a very important match, it’s divided into two stages. And we’ll have to take the game where we think we can hurt them,” he added.

Simeone has been vocal in his praise of Hansi Flick’s Barcelona in recent months and once again gave credit to the German tactician, calling him the Catalans’ ‘greatest strength.’

“Their biggest strength is the coach, he has the strength to transmit the style of play and the arrival of Flick has done Barcelona a lot of good,” he remarked.

When asked about how he plans to tackle Barça, Simeone replied: “We have a concrete idea and we’ll work on it with the lads in training.

“We’re facing an opponent that I really like the way they play. They have a great attacking strength and we will look to hurt them where we think we can.”

Simeone has become a Flick admirer. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Having beaten Barcelona in La Liga already, the Atletico Madrid manager stressed that the key will be to stay patient and capitalise when their moments arrive.

“When you face big teams you know you have to be prepared to endure. There will be good moments, we know how it happened against Real Madrid, where there were moments when they were better than us…,” he noted.

“We know that there will be different moments of games and hopefully there will be more good ones for us.”

On Lamine Yamal, Barcelona goalkeepers

Barcelona are sweating over the fitness of key winger Lamine Yamal who did not train with the team today due to a bruise on his foot that he picked up against Las Palmas.

On being asked about the young winger’s possible absence tomorrow, Simeone replied:

“I’m not going to talk about each of the opposition’s players. They have decisive players, offensively they are going through a very good moment, whoever they play, they play very well.”

Regarding Barcelona’s goalkeeping situation, where Wojciech Szczesny has replaced Inaki Pena as the preferred option between the sticks, Simeone refused to get involved, saying:

“I’m not here to talk about individual opponents. I prefer to talk about us, the excitement that this competition generates and we’re thinking about playing a good game.”

At the same time, Simeone also ruled out veteran defender Cesar Azpilicueta for the game while also providing an update on the condition of Clement Lenglet, on loan at Atletico from Barcelona.

“Cesar won’t be with us against Barcelona, I hope he arrives on Saturday. And Lenglet, we’ll see if he starts or not,” he commented.

The Atletico Madrid head coach also confirmed that second-choice goalkeeper, Juan Musso, will start in goal against the Blaugrana, saying: “Juan will play for sure.”

Source: AS