Simeone puts faith in his players for Champions League second leg

Atletico Madrid were stunned by Olivier Giroud’s bicycle kick at the National Stadium in Bucharest last night, an away goal which sways the advantage to Chelsea’s side ahead of the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

The second leg takes place in three weeks time on March 17 and Diego Simeone is confident in their chances of proceeding to the next round as he trusts in his team.

“Looking three weeks ahead is too far. We have a lot of games until then. We’ll be playing against an opponent with speed and will need to be able to stop it, to deal with forwards like Giroud and other powerful players,” Simeone told Marca.

“We need to have more of the ball and position ourselves better in attack. We’ll work on it, but we also have an important game against Villarreal. Work, work, work. I trust the team we have. If we were in the month of September and they told me we’ve lost but we’re still leading, I’d sign for it.”

Atletico Madrid are still top of La Liga but are losing ground as they have dropped points in the last three games which has reduced the gap between them and city rivals Real Madrid to three points.