Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone was thrilled with his side’s commanding performance in a 6-0 thrashing of host Sparta Prague in the Champions League on Tuesday, on a night when forward Julian Alvarez put on a show with two goals.
The Argentine boss said he was excited with Alvarez’s evolution after a bumpy start to the season when he was signed for big money and high expectations from Manchester City.
“Anything that means winning makes me happy. If the team has the chance to keep playing like this and scoring goals, so much the better,” Simeone told a press conference at the Letna Stadion.
“We kept taking the game where we wanted it to go, we accumulated chances and Julian’s goal from a free kick was a great goal.
“Julian is a player with the highest level, who has played for River Plate, Manchester City and Argentina. He is going from strength to strength since joining us, and we expect the best from him.
“He is young, there is good hope for the present and the future. Hopefully we can accompany him so that he can continue to grow.”
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After Alvarez and Marcos Llorente gave Atletico a three-goal lead, Antoine Griezmann and Angel Correa came off the bench to add to the feast, with Correa scoring twice in the final minutes.
Simeone praised his players and urged them to seize momentum off the back of their sixth successive win in all competitions with arguably their best performance of the campaign.
“We are all part of the team. We need everyone to do what the team ask of them. We don’t play the game thinking only about the starters, but about the 90 minutes,” Simeone said.
“We knew that we had to press for more options to appear and it was good to see how effective we were, mainly in the second half, with the team understanding everything they needed.
“It was good to see how those who came off the bench went out there flying, even though the result was already very good. They were fast, intense and in constant search of more goals.”
Atletico is ninth in the 36-team Champions League table with nine points from five games while Sparta Prague is 28th on four points.
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