Diego Simeone confesses Atletico Madrid 'struggled to contain' dynamic Celtic

DIEGO Simeone tonight admitted that his Atletico Madrid players had struggled to live with Celtic in the first half of their Champions League encounter at Parkhead this evening and raved about the Glasgow club’s slick attacking play.

Brendan Rodgers’ team took an early lead in the Group E encounter against Simeone’s side when Kyogo Furuhashi linked with Matt O’Riley and fired beyond Jan Oblack.

The visitors levelled at a spot kick after Greg Taylor had tripped Nahuel Molina inside his own area – Antoine Griezmann saw his penalty saved by Joe Hart but the French striker netted the rebound.

However, the Scottish champions fought back and Luis Palma netted before half-time when he got on the end of a Daizen Maeda delivery and slotted a shot past Oblack off the inside of the left post.

Simeone was pleased with the La Liga outfit’s display in the second half and with the equaliser that Alvaro Morata scored – but the Argentinian confessed that Atletico been unable to handle their adversaries during the opening 45 minutes.   

“As I expected, they started the game really well, as they did against Feyenoord and Lazio,” he said.  “We really struggled to contain them and their first attack resulted in a goal. In the first half we didn’t play the way I wanted us to.

"But I was really pleased with the second half. That was a real Champions League performance from us, we showed a lot of personality.

“I always like to focus on the positives, which for me as the second half. In the first half, we didn’t have the speed that the game required, we weren’t up to scratch and they combined well in our half and scored a couple of goals. In the second half, the substitutes made a really big impact.

“Our opposition played well, they were at home, they got off to a great start. We need to increase the time we are playing at the level we were in the second half. But we responded well and that is what we have to see if we are going to compete in the Champions League.

“Our opposition played well in the first half and we played extremely well in the second half. I wasn’t surprised at all. I saw how well they played against Feyenoord and Lazio. In the second half they ran out of ideas a bit, but I was impressed with their speed and dynamism and their ability to move the ball forward at pace and create chances."