Simeone hails ´perfect´ second half

Diego Simeone praised Atletico Madrid’s display as they moved into the last eight of the Europa league with a 3-0 win at Besiktas.

A first-half strike from Adrian and late goals from Radamel Falcao and Eduardo Salvio earned Atletico a comfortable 6-1 aggregate victory against the Turkish side after the first leg had finished 3-1 for the Spanish club.

“We are very happy,” Simeone said. “We knew we would have to suffer in the opening 15 minutes.”

“But from then on, we started to build our game, we were more calm and we had a good end to the first half. The second half was perfect.”

Simeone then had special words of praise for Arda Turan, who put in a good display on his return to the Turkish capital.

“He is a player who reads the game like few others,” the Argentine coach said. “He just knows how to assist his team-mates.”

Atletico will find out their quarter-final opponent at the draw on Friday.