Atletico Madrid coach taking inspiration from Chelsea\u2019s UCL success last season ahead of quarters
\n LONDON
\nDiego Simeone conceded on Monday that Manchester City have \u201cbetter\u201d players than Atletico Madrid but said Chelsea\u2019s Champions League success last year shows his team can still reach the semi-finals.
\nAtletico are the underdogs heading into the first leg in Manchester on Tuesday but Simeone\u2019s side have history for upsetting the odds, not least when they defeated Pep Guardiola\u2019s Bayern Munich in 2016.
\n\u201cI have no doubt Manchester City have extraordinary players,\u201d Simeone said in a press conference. \u201cThey have better players than us, but there are two games to play.
\n\u201cManchester City and Bayern are the favourites because of the players they have but last season, Chelsea won. They got better, they played as a team and they won, which nobody expected.\u201d
\nGuardiola had earlier refused to be drawn into a \u201cstupid\u201d debate on tactics, amid suggestions the match would be a clash of styles between the possession-based football he favours and Atletico\u2019s cruder style under Simeone.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not going to talk one second about this stupid debate,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone tries to win the game.
\n\u201cIf they win they are right, if we win we are right. It\u2019s for the players, the difference will be there.\u201d
\nManchester United were undone by Atletico\u2019s spoiling tactics in the previous round but Guardiola had no time for the notion the Spanish club were an \u201cugly\u201d team.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not going to judge what they do, I\u2019ll analyse what to do to get a good result to go to Madrid next week,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWhat is playing ugly? My team won in Old Trafford 1-0 and Bernardo Silva spent five minutes in the corner. That is not ugly, it\u2019s defending the position.
\n\u201cI never judge the opponents, what they do.\u201d
\nSimeone said three times that he \u201clikes watching Manchester City play\u201d but pointed to City\u2019s work ethic under Guardiola as the key to their success.
\n\u201cWhat impresses me is how Raheem Sterling, (Kevin) De Bruyne, they run, they pressure, they never think a ball is lost,\u201d Simeone said. \u201cThis work ethic is what every manager wants.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, Guardiola said he always overthinks his tactics in the Champions league and joked he could even line up with 12 players.
\n\u201cIn the Champions League always I overthink. New tactics, tomorrow (Tuesday) you will see a new one,\u201d said the former Bayern Munich coach.
\n\u201cI overthink a lot, that\u2019s why I have very good results in the Champions League. It would be boring if I always played the same way.\u201d
\nGuardiola, who twice won the Champions League as coach of Barcelona, appeared to make fun of his approach by adding: \u201cThe movements are different, the players are all different with different personalities.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s why I overthink and create stupid tactics. Tonight I will take an inspiration and I\u2019m going to do incredible tactics tomorrow. We will play with 12 tomorrow!\u201d
\nThe reigning Premier League champions have yet to win European football\u2019s most prestigious trophy. They came close last year, losing 1-0 in the final to English rivals Chelsea.
\nCity midfielder Bernardo Silva added: \u201cWe know it will be very tight. It won\u2019t be an open game because that isn\u2019t Atletico\u2019s quality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atletico Madrid coach taking inspiration from Chelsea\u2019s UCL success last season ahead of quarters LONDON Diego Simeone conceded on Monday that Manchester City have \u201cbetter\u201d players than Atletico Madrid but said Chelsea\u2019s Champions League success last year shows his team can still reach the semi-finals. Atletico are the underdogs heading into the first leg in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[5672,5673,521],"class_list":{"0":"post-253282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-diego-simeone","9":"tag-man-city","10":"tag-players"},"yoast_head":"\n