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Madrid, Dec 6 (AFP): Diego Simeone says he backs his Atletico Madrid players to prevail in their must-win final Champions League group match with Porto on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Defeat would see Atletico miss out on the knockout stage for only the second time during Simeone’s near decade-long tenure.<\/p>\n
Atletico and AC Milan both trail second-placed Porto by a point.<\/p>\n
Milan host Liverpool, who have already qualified as Group B winners, and are above Atletico on goal difference.<\/p>\n
Should both Atletico and Milan win their games it will come down to goal difference as they are tied on their head-to-head record.<\/p>\n
There have been clear signs this season of decline in the Atletico side Simeone has taken to two LaLiga titles and within a whisker of two Champions League triumphs.<\/p>\n
Atletico go into the match in Portugal on the back of a home defeat in La Liga, a 2-1 loss to Mallorca on Saturday.<\/p>\n
However, Simeone is adamant the players will deliver for him and the fans.<\/p>\n
“I have full confidence in my team,” said Simeone at his press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n
“We have worked on the things we needed to and now what we have to do is to talk amongst ourselves so that we feel at ease on the pitch.<\/p>\n
“The one thing that is important to me is that we feel good on the pitch, which will allow us to control the game and chances will flow from that.”<\/p>\n
The combative former Argentinian midfielder said he is not underestimating the challenge that faces his side.<\/p>\n
“We have a very important match against a very good side, who top their league,” said the 51-year-old.<\/p>\n
“Porto are a team who I like a lot and who go into the last round favourites because they have more points than either ourselves or Milan.”<\/p>\n
Atletico’s Spanish international midfielder Marcos Llorente said the team were used to facing tight situations like the one confronting them.<\/p>\n
“This team has the character and personality to get out of this,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We have done it before and this situation is no different.<\/p>\n
“These are the sort of matches every footballer enjoys playing.”<\/p>\n
Simeone said Uruguayan central defender Jose Maria Gimenez will miss the game through injury, but Belgian international Yannick Carrasco is once again available for selection.<\/p>\n
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Madrid, Dec 6 (AFP): Diego Simeone says he backs his Atletico Madrid players to prevail in their must-win final Champions League group match with Porto on Tuesday. Defeat would see Atletico miss out on the knockout stage for only the second time during Simeone’s near decade-long tenure. Atletico and AC Milan both trail second-placed Porto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-178632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}