‘Struggled to contain them’ - Celtic fans will love what Diego Simeone just said in Atletico Madrid confession

Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone felt his players struggled to live with Celtic in the first half of their Champions League encounter at Parkhead on Wednesday as he talked up the Scottish champions attacking play.

The Hoops were denied a first group stage victory at home in 10 years following a 2-2 draw with the La Liga giants to leave Brendan Rodgers’ side still bottom of Group E at the halfway stage. Kyogo Furuhashi had fired beyond visiting keeper Jan Oblak to open the scoring after only four minutes before the Spanish outfit levelled from the penalty spot through Antonio Griezmann at the second attempt.

Luis Palma then restored the hosts lead before half-time with a ferocious strike off the inside of the left-hand post but Alvaro Morata hit back to score the equaliser to leave fiery Argentinian Simeone satisfied with a point.

He confessed that Atletico weren’t able to handle their opponents during the opening 45 minutes, but took plenty of positives from his side’s second half performance.

He said: “As I expected, they started the game really well, as they did against Feyenoord and Lazio. 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 quality. I always like to focus on the positives, which for me is 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 first half. But we responded well and that is what we have to see if we are going to compete in the Champions League.

“I wasn’t surprised at all. Yesterday I saw how well they (Celtic) 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 they have in their play and their ability to move the ball forward at pace and create chances.”