Though Atletico Madrid went down against Bayer Leverkusen last night, Diego Simeone is confident of getting a positive result in the next leg at home.
In a game of few chances, a goal from Hakan Calhanoglu in the 57th minute was enough to secure a 1-0 win for the home side at the BayArena in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against the Spanish champions.
Simeone’s men fought hard to get an away goal, but Leverkusen did well to keep their slender lead intact before they travel to Spain for the second leg at the Vicente Calderon next month.
The Atletico Madrid boss admits that the game saw very few chances created from either of the teams and even though they lost, he is reasonably pleased with his side’s performance against well-matched opponents such as Leverkusen.
“It was a strange game – neither side created too many chances”, Simeone told UEFA.
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“In the second half, things were even and we tried to use our weapons.
“I am going away reasonably content, because I had to use two substitutes in the first half. [Leverkusen] play as they do and they do it well; it is very similar to our style.”
Though Simeone admits that Leverkusen have their noses in front in the tie and did cause Los Rojiblancos problems last night, he is confident that his team have the ability to overturn the deficit in the second leg in Madrid on 17th March.
“Now Leverkusen have the advantage”, the Argentine continued.
“We had problems caused by the pressure applied by Leverkusen and we were not able to play our own game.
“But I am quite confident for the return match in Madrid.”
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