Diego Simeone had brave words after his worst night as Atletico Madrid coach by declaring that the tie was not over despite Real Madrid’s three-goal advantage.
He said he was ‘neither disappointed nor furious’ after the first-leg hat trick of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Asked what he had told the players after the game, he said: ‘I have told them: “rest, recover, forget this game. Football is marvelous because anything can happen”
‘It’s difficult yes, impossible maybe, but it’s football so we will give every drop of sweat to make it happen.
‘They were better than us and we congratulate them for that but now we have to think about the next game. We have a game on Saturday and then we have something that appears impossible but we are Atletico Madrid so maybe, just maybe we are capable of doing it.’
Atletico came into the game having conceded only a goal in every other game but they were hanging on from the first whistle against Madrid.
Simeone believes the first half could have gone differently had his team not taken their first chance.
He said: ‘Both teams were imprecise in the first half but they scored first. We had more of the ball in the second half but we did not do enough and we left a lot of space for them to take advantage.
‘I have not given up hope. The wonderful thing about football is that anything can happen.’
