Simeone salutes Atleti's 'team effort'
Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone saluted the "team effort" from his players, after they came from behind again to beat Real Valladolid.
Los Rojiblancos moved to within three points of second-place Real Madrid, and to within seven of LaLiga leader Barcelona, after a 4-2 victory at Riyadh Air Metropolitano.
Just like in its previous match against Sevilla, Atletico fell behind to Mamadou Sylla's penalty, but Julian Alvarez's spot-kick and a Giuliano Simeone goal turned the contest around.
Javi Sanchez's deflected free-kick levelled matters for LaLiga's bottom side once again, but a second Alvarez penalty was followed by Alexander Sorloth sealing the points later on.
Atleti has claimed 23 points from winning positions in LaLiga this season, more than any other side in the big five European leagues.
"It happened against Sevilla and today, too," Simeone said. "Valladolid's goals were fortuitous.
"What's important is the team's reaction, the penalty and Giuliano's goal came, then we slowed the game down again, but after that, it went the way we wanted.
"We know that there is no such thing as an easy game. There will always be difficult moments. You can't control the game all the time.
"There are things you can't control and that happened today. But today, we were able to work on it well with team effort, as we have been doing all season."
Meanwhile, Simeone paid tribute to his son Giuliano, who chipped in with his fifth goal in all competitions this season.
The Atletico boss acknowledged his surprise by the quality of the winger's performance levels throughout the campaign.
"I didn't expect him to perform like this," he said. "I did expect him to help us, that's why I thought of having him as just another player in the squad.
"Honestly, he's having a great season, and hopefully, he can keep it up. Nobody has given him anything for free, and nobody is going to give it to him. He knows it, he knows me better than anyone."
