Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone put pressure on Barcelona ahead of Wednesday night's first leg of the Spanish Super Cup by saying winning the trophy is more important for the Catalans.
Simeone, who has already led Atletico to success in the Europa League, European Super Cup and Copa del Rey in little over 18 months in the job, believes his side have nothing to lose against the Spanish champions, who started the defence of their league title with a 7-0 demolition of Levante on Sunday.
"The Super Cup is not more important for us than them. Finals are important for everyone. Their status as favourites makes it more important for them because they have the obligation to win it," he told a press conference on Tuesday.
"Barcelona are without doubt the better team. They have (Lionel) Messi, the best player in the world, and they have bought a player that could be the best in the world in Neymar.
"They have (Andres) Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro and Alexis (Sanchez). They have various players that are important and it is normal that they are favourites.
"With the economic power they have, they are able to assemble this team that we can enjoy because watching Barcelona is a pleasure."
Despite his complementary words towards Barca, the Argentine also sounded confident that Atleti's containing style of play could work to their advantage over the two legs of the tie.
Atletico themselves started their league campaign with a fine 3-1 win away to Sevilla and Simeone believes that match can be used as a template on how to combat Barca's possession-based game.
"On Sunday, Sevilla had 65 percent possession and we had 37 percent, but we had more shots, more corners and more goals.
"It is always important to have possession, but with a final purpose. We have a style with less possession because of the players we have.
"They have more, but with a final explosion. They were the inventors of this style and the rest have copied it.
"We need to have patience and be secure and solid in these type of games to take advantage of our opportunities."
Source: AFP
