Atletico Madrid Boss Diego Simeone Still Aiming for Title & Praises Vitolo Following Celta Vigo Win
Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone praised the performance of goalscorer Vitolo and insisted that his side still remains in the hunt for the title, following Sunday's 3-0 victory over Celta Vigo at the Wanda Metropolitano
Los Colchoneros bounced back from last weekend's disappointing 1-0 defeat to Barcelona to claim a comfortable three points and cut the gap on La Liga's leaders to eight points.
The excellent Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring for the hosts just before the break with a curling finish from a tight angle. Vitolo doubled Atletico's advantage in the 56th minute with a deft chip over Marco Ruben before Angel Correa rounded off the scoring soon after with a powerful strike from the edge of the box.
"It was a beautiful match, against a rival that throws many players forward in attack. I think we always had the desire to go looking for goals, we weren't precise enough early on," Simeone said in his post-match press conference, as quoted by Marca.
Regarding Vitolo, who scored his first league goal for the club since his January arrival from Las Palmas, the Colchoneros boss revealed: "Vitolo's goal made the match a lot more comfortable for us. He's growing, everyone is performing at such a high level."
"We wanted him to make a leap forwards in his quality during transitional play, he's getting closer to what we want from him. Today he got the reward he deserved by scoring a goal, we hope he continues improving.
"My hope is that we arrive in the last five matches still in with a chance," he explained in his post-match press conference. There are still a lot of matches to be played, we're going from match to match. We'll try to continue in this way, now we have a complicated trip to Russia before Villarreal."
Atletico next face Lokomotiv Moscow - with a three-goal advantage - in the second leg of their round of 16 Europa League tie on Thursday. Thereafter, Simeone's side will face sixth-placed Villarreal in La Liga.
