Diego Simeone admits Atletico Madrid benefitted from penalty decision during Valencia victory – Football España

Atletico Madrid bounced back from consecutive draws in La Liga with a 3-0 victory over Valencia on Saturday, but there was some controversy during the match at the Mestalla.

With the score at 2-0 in the second half, Valencia were denied a route back into the match from the penalty spot after a header from Umar Sadiq that struck the arm of Javi Galan was deemed not to be a foul.

This decision angered Valencia, and even Atleti head coach Diego Simeone believes that his side benefitted from that decision, as he told the media during his pre-match press conference (via Diario AS). Cholo showed further sympathy for Los Che after stating his belief that other teams would have got that decision.

“It’s the same move as the European Championship. It was like the penalty decision with Cucurella (during Spain vs Germany). For me, it was a penalty. The ball hits him on his hand. That situation is hardly understandable. Hopefully we can manage the same line in all the teams. Sometimes they whistle them, sometimes they don’t.”

Simeone expressed his delight with Julian Alvarez after the Argentine scored twice in the victory at the Mestalla, and he also singled out Antoine Griezmann for praise after the talismanic figure ended his poor run with a strong performance.

“He is a differential player, he sees things that others do not see and today he helped us get the three points at a very difficult stadium. Valencia is a team that always competes, especially at Mestalla, they had two wins and a draw in the last three games, and we were very forceful. And in the second half, what usually happens on this field. They pressed better, they were more aggressive to generate danger and then Giménez’s entry organised us more. We had Sorloth’s and then Correa’s in which we were able to close the game.”