Title hopes of Atletico Madrid suffered a huge setback on Sunday when they failed to win at Vicente Calderon against resurgent Valencia. After this draw, the Rojiblancos coach Diego Simeone said that they are not in a fight against Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
Koke, who returned from one month long injury break, put Atletico Madrid ahead in the first half. But the strikers of Atletico Madrid failed to produce anything spectacular in the entire game.
Valencia, who are just a point behind Atletico Madrid in the points table, did not try to do anything special in the entire game but they leveled the scored in the second half with the help of a goal from Shkodran Mustafi.
Atletico Madrid had a chance to reduce the gap at the top after the loss of Real Madrid on Saturday but Diego Simeonea s men failed to do so.
Diego Simeone said after the game that Atletico Madrida s real fight is against Sevilla and Valencia and not against Real or Barca.
“I will not give you a headline by saying that we are fighting for La Liga,” Diego Simeone told reporters after the game.
“The league is long and our championship now is against Valencia and Sevilla, neither of whom managed to beat us in these last two games.”
Simeone also confessed that Atletico Madrid did not put in enough efforts to hold on to their lead in the second half.
“We did very well in the first half,” said Simeone. “We pressed them, played the game in their half and we won our duels.
“However, in the second half, we didn’t play in the same way. We didn’t continue with the intention of owning the middle of the park and Valencia had more control of the ball as a result.
“We played 10-15 metres deeper and didn’t press well, so a draw is a fair result.”
Valencia defender Nicolas Otamendi said after the game that it was a fair result and he is happy with the same.
a We recovered in the best way because this was the game in which we wanted it to be. We know Atl tico Madrid are a team that like to hold on to the ball, are aggressive and are well organised. The draw is a fair result,a said Otamendi.