Diego Simeone hails Atletico Madrid fans after Eibar win

Diego Simeone hails Atletico Madrid fans after Eibar win

Diego Simeone highlighted the contribution of the fans in Atletico Madrid's 3-1 win over Eibar. He said they were "impressive", like his team was playing "with 12" and that the substitutions allowed his team to make "a violent change" to the game.

"Without doubt, it was for many reasons, but the fans were impressive. I'd like them to always be like this. Today there was a different atmosphere, they felt it from the first minute. It was a bad first half of ours, but the fans were giving us the support we needed. Today we returned to play with 12."

Simeone hailed the victory and the reaction of his team "above all because of the circumstances" with which they faced the game, "with an almost new defence."

He added: "Only Gimenez is usually picked. Lucas's response was very good, Saul's response was enormous, above all for how he reacted to the situation in the game (he made the error for Eibar's opening goal), the same with Gamez."

On Fernando Torres he said: "100 goals at the club of his life is emotional. It's satisfying that he's scoring again and his participation in the game [was good]. The entrance of Fernando gave us potency, he did what we want from him."