Simeone: ‘Atletico Madrid had a plan’ against Inter and it worked perfectly

Diego Simeone reveals Atletico Madrid ‘had a plan’ on how to break Inter down and it worked to perfection against ‘one of the best teams in the Champions League.’

The Argentine played for the Nerazzurri from 1996 to 1999 and confessed in yesterday’s press conference that he sees himself on their bench in future as a coach.

Nonetheless, he celebrated wildly as Jose Maria Gimenez powered home an Antoine Griezmann corner deep into stoppages to seal the 2-1 victory.

“We played against an incredibly strong team, I think one of the best in the Champions League,” Simeone told Amazon Prime Video Italia.

“We knew that, and our first half was aimed at limiting their football with pace and physicality, who could run when we recovered the ball. We knew they would suffer on counter-attacks, especially getting behind their wing-backs.

“Knowing that we could rely on a different part of our repertoire in the second half, the substitutes allowed us to continue the plan. We threw on everything we had, the game changed, we had the ball and they were making the quick transitions to cause us damage. Fortunately, we took home a result we really needed in the Champions League.

“The goal at the 94th minute made it all the more exhilarating, but win, draw or defeat, that was the plan.”

There was a great deal of controversy around the early Atletico Madrid opener, as Alex Baena seemed to handle before Julian Alvarez fired in from close range.

Piotr Zielinski scored the temporary equaliser for Inter, but that didn’t prevent Atleti from maintaining their perfect home record in the Champions League this season.

“I don’t have comfort zones and I don’t want them, I enjoy being like this,” replied Simeone when pushed on his wild celebrations.

“We need to work with faith, love and quality. I have players who support me, there were many on the bench who wanted to start, but they did what they needed to do.”

Inter have now suffered five defeats this season in all competition, but this was the first in the Champions League, where they had a perfect record going in.