Simeone praises Atleti defence but wants more firepower

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone was pleased with his team’s defensive performance as they beat Celta Vigo in LaLiga on Thursday, but he knows they must create more chances.

Atletico managed to keep another clean sheet to consolidate their status as the best defensive side in the competition, conceding only three goals in seven games this season.

At the other end, Simeone’s men only managed two shots on target and generated just 0.62 expected goals (xG) to the hosts’ 1.53 xG, but Julian Alvarez’s late goal inflicted Celta’s first home defeat in seven months.

“Today we took the three points with great defensive patience against opponents who haven’t lost since February,” Simeone told reporters.

“We’ve been working well, but we need to improve our attacking. In the first half we performed well in defence but we didn’t create opportunities to put our players in front of goal.

“There’s a defensive performance that is much better, we still haven’t found that area where we can play better offensively.”

The Argentine was, however, delighted with the performances of Alvarez, Angel Correa and midfielder Rodrigo Riquelme, all of whom made an impact off the bench.

“In the second half the substitutions made us better, Rodrigo Riquelme, Julian, Correa… they were feeding us more in a game where both sides looked like they were going to have chances,” Simeone said.

“Luckily, in the end [Antoine] Griezmann and Julian found each other.”

Atletico host city rivals Real Madrid in LaLiga on Sunday, having taken 15 points from seven matches to trail Los Blancos by two points and leaders Barcelona by six.