Diego Simeone was pissed off by Atletico Madrid’s failure to capitalise on their management of their 2-1 loss to Actual Madrid within the first-leg of their final 16 Champions League tie.
After Rodrygo had put Carlo Ancelotti’s facet forward, Julian Alvarez restored parity within the thirty second minute with a surprising curling effort that crashed off the put up on its approach in.
Alvarez has now scored seven objectives in 9 appearances within the Champions League this season, with solely Diego Costa in 2013-14 and Vava in 1958-59 (each eight) scoring extra of their first European marketing campaign for Atletico.
Following their equaliser, the guests had been in a position to unsettle Actual and dominate possession, however they had been unable to show that into clear-cut probabilities for themselves.
And their profligacy was punished 10 minutes into the second half when Brahim Diaz danced his approach into the realm earlier than ending previous Jan Oblak from shut vary.
Certainly, Atletico have now misplaced every of their final 4 away video games within the knockout phases of the Champions League, their longest dropping run away from house at this stage of the competitors since 1969-1971 (5).
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Simeone, nonetheless, mentioned he was pleased with how his workforce reacted to Rodrygo’s early opener, including that he felt assured they might flip the tie round within the second leg.
“We should always have taken higher benefit after we had management of the sport,” he mentioned. “It’s tough to take dangers in order that with any counter-attack you find yourself dropping the sport.
“We managed that state of affairs very properly, however we had been lacking (one thing) within the closing metres.”
Simeone was additionally assured that the ambiance in entrance of their very own supporters would give his gamers an edge to mount a comeback, as they did towards Inter at this stage of the competitors final 12 months.
However that job might have been made even tougher within the closing phases, with Kylian Mbappe failing to search out Vinicius Junior within the closing moments after a swift counter-attack.
“Possibly the hope of that no objective opens the door for what’s to return,” Simeone concluded.
