Diego Simeone, coach of Atlético de Madrid, acknowledged, after the 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao, that "anything other than winning generates vertigo", although he emphasized the complexity of this League, highlighting the "competitiveness" maintained by his team and regretting the missed opportunity by Santiago Arias in the final stretch with the score at 1-1.
"We tried, we searched, we searched until the end for the path that would bring us closer to the goal and it didn't happen. Good first 90 minutes. We have an absolute need to win and anything other than winning generates vertigo. We will have to live with that from now until the end, because I can't imagine another scenario, because every match will be difficult for everyone, including us," he explained in the press conference held remotely from San Mamés.
"We will have to deal with this situation. We need to win, have the players in good condition... It is clear that it was complex and difficult. It's a fantastic challenge. We will all have the complexity," said the coach, whose team is still outside of the Champions League positions, waiting for the result of Real Sociedad to know how many points they are behind fourth place: whether they stay one point behind or increase their disadvantage to three.
Once again, with the qualifier of "finals" for the remaining ten matchdays of the season, Simeone emphasized that his team was able to "maintain the stability of competitiveness throughout the entire match". "The substitutions gave us energy, they entered very well and that allowed us to maintain what we were doing in the second half, which was the best thing we were doing," he added.
"The goal of both teams was to try to win the match. We started well in the first ten minutes, with that good play by Carrasco that could have scored. Then, they started to position themselves better, with their ball recovery in our half and that didn't allow us to associate to go out and find spaces to attack. The goal came and as a result, an immediate reaction from the team with a very good goal from Costa," he analyzed.
"In the second half, we saw a different game compared to the first. We were closer to victory. Perhaps Arias' chance is the clearest of the match and it could have allowed us to win. We couldn't win and we must keep working," he reviewed of the match, played without spectators.
He experienced the circumstance of playing without fans "just as all coaches and players" comment: "It's not simple, it's not easy, because we are used to living with a different atmosphere, with people, with shouts and with the pressure from the opponent."
And he spoke again about his belief that, at this moment, Diego Costa and Álvaro Morata cannot play together in the forward line because the team is not prepared in the best way to sustain a lineup with both in the attack, in which he chose Marcos Llorente to accompany the Spanish-Brazilian in the starting lineup.
"Seeing what I see every day in training and knowing the squad as I do, I interpret that this situation is like this today. We didn't have Vitolo, we didn't have Correa, who was coming back from an injury, Carrasco plays deeper on the wing, Lemar feels more uncomfortable playing in that proximity to the forward and Marcos Llorente had good passages, good starts, good one-on-ones and worked well defensively. In the second half, he wore down and we made the substitutions that you saw," he assessed.