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Simeone’s team continues its irregular trajectory and has only added nine points out of 18 in the last six days
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The Whites, who have lost Lucas Vázquez through injury, are looking for a place in the semifinals of the Champions League this week
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The Catalans appear on Saturday to the Cup final with Athletic in search of a title that calms down the ‘Koeman project’
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“I love this moment”. Diego Pablo Simeone, the Atlético coach, does not feel vertigo before the new League that has begun. A tournament that will only last eight days where the three great applicants are only separated by two points. Atleti is still in command, with 67 points, followed by Madrid, who has 66, and Barça, whose defeat in the El Clásico drops him to third place after adding 65 points.
Three teams and two points as a border. And each of them with a different story. Atlético lived calmly after a superb first round of the League, but now, due to their own mistakes, the road to the title has been complicated by wasting the wide mattress that it came to have.
“I love this moment, it is what coaches want. To arrive at this moment taking care of our position and competing with the best”
Simeone, Atlético coach
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“We are in a very competitive league,” Simeone recalled. “We started very strong and Barça and Madrid did it irregularly. Now we see that Madrid is coming at an extraordinary pace and Barça won Valladolid with difficulties and lost the classic,” the Argentine coach stressed.
Simeone, in # LaCasadelFútbol :
– “We had to take a point, it couldn’t be. We have to keep fighting game by game.”
– “We need Joao Félix”.
– “I like to reach these dates fighting the League with the best.” pic.twitter.com/hbmOYbM2Pp– Football in Movistar + (@MovistarFutbol) April 11, 2021
“I love this moment, it is what coaches want. To arrive at this moment taking care of our position and competing with the best,” added Cholo, who works now, above all, “mental strength”, as Koke has admitted, of their players so that they are not emotionally threatened after being almost trapped by Madrid and Barça.
Barça-Atlético, the only direct duel that remains
At Atlético, tremors have trembled. Six games, two wins (Athletic and Alavés), three draws (Madrid, Getafe and Betis) and one defeat (Sevilla). Nine points out of 18 possible allowing Madrid and Barça to get dangerously close to him in a compressed fight that will last eight days and where there is only one direct duel between the three applicants: the one that will be lived at the Camp Nou between Barça and Atlético on the next 9 May on matchday 35.
Zidane admits that his team is at the limit in the physical aspect
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While Simeone’s team seeks answers to that notorious drop in performance, further aggravated by the injuries of Suárez, his greatest treasure for the goal, and now Joao Felix, who suffered a blow to the ankle at Benito Villamarín, which made him limping away from the game, Madrid focused on the Champions League after defeating the Catalans in the classic.
Piqué’s protests after the final whistle. #ThePartidazoDeMovistar pic.twitter.com/CqJQqkrwfa
– #Vamos de Movistar + (@vamos) April 10, 2021
Zidane has lost Lucas Vázquez through injury. It is a much more transcendent piece than one might think for the French coach, who is left without a versatile player, who gives him many tactical records. He also does not have Ramos or Varane, with coronavirus. With those three casualties he travels to Anfield to defend this Wednesday the 3-1 achieved in the first leg and sneak into the semifinals of the Champions League after having re-enlisted a League that previously had very far.
Koeman needs a title to gain time and credibility in the complex process of rebuilding Barça
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Madrid is one point behind Atlético, but they arrive with a very low fuel tank. Almost in reserve. This is no exaggeration. Even Zidane himself admits it. “Physically the team is on the limit. You cannot do nonsense because this week we have had two very physically demanding games,” he said about the two hard-fought victories against Liverpool and Barça. “We cannot relax because on Wednesday we have another one. It is not easy. What we are doing is very difficult,” stressed the French coach.
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Barça, who have always run into the greats, have the leader in two. The Barça team is now forced to abandon the arbitration complaints expressed by Koeman and symbolized in Piqué’s dialogue with Gil Manzano as soon as the classic ends. Now, Barcelona must pour all its energy into the Cup final that will play next Saturday in Seville against Athletic, the same one that snatched the Spanish Super Cup last January.
In a season as complex as this, after the 2-8 in Lisbon last August, a title would calm Koeman’s project, a coach signed by Josep Maria Bartomeu to what Joan Laporta, the new president, has given his confidence in public. But he needs trophies to support his work in the delicate rebuilding of the squad.
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