Diego Simeone was his usual, cocky self after his Atletico side managed to scrape a 1-0 victory against Liverpool at home in the Champions League.
He believes Atleti started winning before a ball was even kicked. In his post-match interviews, he explained how seeing the support for the team calmed him – if you can call repeated leaving your technical area for 90 minutes ‘calm’.
“I think we started winning the game when our bus turned at the roundabout and we saw the reaction of the people. It enthused us. Something beautiful woke up in us,” he’s quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo.
“The feeling that came out of the people, the reply of the people, I’ve rarely seen from our fans at this level. They were there the whole game. It made me want to put my boots on and go on the pitch.”
The Argentine admitted that he rarely sees support for the Spaniards at such a level, and we can only be forced to assume that’s because Liverpool were in town.
To be fair to Simeone, he then explained that nobody will forget beating the “best team in the world” in the Reds – a rare compliment, even if a back-handed one.
“It’s not the best night because we’ve not won anything but it was exciting. It was unusual,” he continued.
“It was a match people won’t forget – to beat the best team in the world, who’ve won a lot of games. We’ve not got past them but we’ve beaten them because in a match everyone has a chance.”
I mean – fair enough, they did just beat the reigning Champions of Europe, it is understandable why Diego, the players and the fans were a little overly-hyped up.
But it is only half-time, and Liverpool will get a chance to exact their revenge at Anfield in a few weeks’ time. If the Reds come out the traps, like we’ve seen so many times this season, it’ll put the game on its head.