Atletico Madrid will fight until the very end in their pursuit of the LaLiga title, despite losing ground to leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid after a poor recent run.
Those were the words of Atletico boss Diego Simeone following his team’s 2-1 win over Sevilla on Sunday, with Pablo Barrios’ stoppage-time winner the difference.
Lucien Agoume’s opener was cancelled out by Julian Alvarez’s penalty in the first half, with Barrios netting the decisive goal with a fine finish in the closing stages.
The result saw Atletico snap their six-game winless run across all competitions, with that streak seeing them dumped out of the Champions League and Copa del Rey.
Simeone’s side are now just seven points behind Barcelona in the table, with the league leaders held to a 1-1 draw by Real Betis on Saturday.
Real Madrid also dropped points this weekend as they were stunned by Valencia at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, with Hugo Duro scoring a late winner for the visitors.
Atletico are handed just a 1.9% chance of winning the title by the Opta supercomputer, but Simeone has confidence in his players that they can catch the top two.
“I keep insisting that we have to think about ourselves, keep growing, keep improving, keep growing,” Simeone told a press conference.
“Is it going to be difficult? Of course! Are we going to struggle? Sure! But we’re going to keep insisting, trying, fighting to the end, because that is who we are.
“Barrios’ goal confirms that the work we are doing is good. The boys keep insisting and keep going for it and going for it and again and again…
“It was an important victory because of everything we went through the last few weeks… (Sevilla) scored early, but we were able to recover.
“After (Julian Alvarez) equaliser, we played good football and had a few chances until a very nice goal in the final minute, a goal that gave us great joy because we never stopped insisting, never surrendered.”
Atletico return to LaLiga action on April 14 when they host last-placed Real Valladolid.
