Antoine Griezmann, Atletico forward, spoke before Tuesday night’s Champions League semi-final against Arsenal: “Regardless of whether I score or not, I prefer to make an assist or win a match than to score a goal. And I think coming into the match, I am calmer, more relaxed. Before, I used to live with a lot of stress, I would play the matches 50 times in my head before playing the first second, and now I am calmer and more relaxed, knowing what I can do and focusing only on that.
I visualize tomorrow’s match, what the coach and my teammates will need, to arrive and know exactly what I have to do. And as I said before, I’m not the type to wonder if this is my last or second-to-last match, but to be mentally well, fresh in my head and legs. And I want to play it because I have a lot of desire and joy to give.”
Diego Simeone, Atletico’s coach: “We will approach this match with the intensity and intelligence it demands. We rely on the quality of our players to raise the collective level, and we have real confidence in our work. We know what we want to do and how to achieve it. Then, of course, the result will not depend solely on us, but we must apply our plan to the end. Regarding Julian Alvarez, he knows the Premier League perfectly and was very good last week (against Arsenal). We hope he will respond well again in a match of this level.”
