Atletico Madrid coach Diego Pablo Simeone praised his side’s great defence against Real Sociedad in the draw at Anoeta, but lamented not having had better counter-attacks to secure the win.

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Pablo Simeone, after the draw at the Reale Arena, stressed that the match was no different to the game played in Bilbao. “It’s just that we won there,” he added.

‘El Cholo’ praised the great work his team did “against a Real Sociedad side that play very well, but we lacked the power to have a few more chances on the counter-attack”.

“The team found the net, defended very well with a huge collective effort against a team that works very well and generates a lot of chances on goal. We made sure they didn’t have too many, but what we lacked was to have much better counter-attacks than we did with all those spaces. I’ll take the positive things from a defensive point of view,” argued Simeone.

On the goal conceded, the Argentinian boss called it a “screamer”, not a lack of concentration as was suggested in the press conference.

Asked about his team’s overall performance, Simeone highlighted having seen the team “strong and organised”, as well as having “worked well on what I was asking for this game”, although “we need to improve in the transitions”.