Diego Simeone explains what he likes about Celtic as Atletico Madrid boss makes prediction
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone is braced for a Celtic onslaught after admitting their pressure did not give his side “time to think” in Glasgow.
Kyogo Furuhashi put Brendan Rodgers’s side ahead inside four minutes at Celtic Park before Atletico twice fought back for a 2-2 Champions League draw. The teams meet again in the Spanish capital on Tuesday and Simeone is not expecting Celtic to be any more cautious following their impressive attacking display in the first half three weeks ago.
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Hide AdThe Argentinian said: “They play a style of football I really like so I have full respect for Celtic. I think they will play exactly the same way. They played just like that against Feyenoord, Lazio and us. That’s their style and I expect nothing else but them coming out the same way.
“The opponent plays a real high press and they didn’t really allow us time to think. We need to be able to play around that. We know our rival starts games really well so we will try to do that ourselves. Despite our poor start at Celtic Park, we didn’t play badly in the first half and we improved in the second half. We got the goal and could have got another one, but after the red card it was just about not losing. We know it’s going to be a very, very difficult game.”
The 2014 and 2016 finalists are looking to get back to the knockout stages after finishing bottom of their group last year, and they have a decent platform get out of Group E after going unbeaten in their opening three matches. But they have conceded five goals so far and have only kept one clean sheet in their past nine Champions League games, while a 2-1 defeat by Las Palmas sparked further questions about their defensive structure.
“Obviously every team tries to keep a clean sheet,” Simeone said. “You normally see a lot of goals in the Champions League because all the teams have good footballers, good forwards, they know how to play football. This is what the Champions League is all about. But our strength over the years has been our ability to keep a clean sheet and grow from there as a team. We will try to do that by keeping a clean sheet and then try to find ways to hurt a Celtic team that knows how to play football.”
Celtic sit bottom of the group with one point, but Simeone expects some twists and turns. “It’s a very tight group,” he said. “I think Celtic deserved more against Feyenoord and Lazio. Obviously every team is going to drop points. The two teams that manage to be more consistent will be the ones that qualify for the last 16.”