Atletico ‘ready’ for Champions League success at last: Simeone

AFP | Madrid

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Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone said that his team was ready to finally win the Champions League after knocking out Barcelona on Tuesday to reach the semi-finals.

The Rojiblancos fell to a 2-1 quarter-final second leg defeat at home but that was enough to progress 3-2 on aggregate after their 2-0 win at Camp Nou last week.

Atletico, who have never won the competition, will face Arsenal or Sporting Lisbon in the semi-finals.

“We’ll go into it with all our hope, with total belief. We know the strengths we have and our flaws,” said Simeone.

“We’re ready. We’re going to go after what we’ve been chasing for many years.”

Simeone led Atletico to the Champions League final in 2014 and 2016, with both ending in painful defeats by cross-town rivals Real Madrid. The last time the Rojiblancos made the semi-finals was 2017.

“It’s been fourteen years now (at the helm), it still excites me to see that the team keeps competing,” said the Argentine coach.

“The players have changed, we’ve had to start over a bunch of times, and here we are again among the four best teams in Europe.”

Veteran Atletico forward Antoine Griezmann said that his team always believed they could find a way back after Barca’s two early goals.

Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres fired the five-time winners ahead on Tuesday but Ademola Lookman pulled one back for Atletico and it proved decisive.

“With our fans and the quality that we have, we could get (our) goal,” Griezmann told reporters.