Diego Simeone is still talking about Liverpool’s defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
It feels like forever ago that the Reds last played a competitive match, with football suspended because of the coronavirus – but it was some night against the Spaniards at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds played incredibly – battering the opposition for much of the 90 minutes – but were only 1-0 up at the end of normal time.
An Adrian mistake then cost us and we couldn’t get back into the game after expelling every last bit of energy beforehand.
Atleti were incredibly lucky to emerge from that game victorious, but this is not the opinion of their bullish Argentine.
“Football is like boxing because you have to know when it is time to attack,” Simeone told AS.
“At Atletico, we know the virtues we have as a team.
“The example is when we played against Liverpool, a tremendous team, who we knew that we could hurt…
“When they talk about how we were lucky, I think of a team that lost 2-0 and scored three goals. That is not luck. The games must be valued as a whole.”
The rest of the Champions League will potentially be played out in August, although there are no guarantees given football’s current curtailment.
Liverpool, still the reigning holders, lost a two-legged European tie under Klopp for the first time – but we’re backing them to bounce back next season and give it another go.
For now, we’re happy to settle for the Premier League, which will be ours once the domestic season resumes – which will likely be in mid-June.