We will give up our lives to win La Liga: Diego Simeone

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has stated that his players will be giving it their all to record a win in their final La Liga encounter against Real Valladolid. A win for Atletico against Valladolid will see them win the La Liga for the first time since 2014. It will be the second league title for the Argentine coach since his arrival at the Madrid-based club. Simeone believes that the players will be giving it their all on the pitch, considering the importance of the game.

The Argenine termed the match as a “final” where both teams will be fighting for achieving different goals.

“A final where two teams fight for different goals but both are going to give up their lives to achieve them,” said Simeone as quoted by Marca, when asked about the game.

The 51-year-old termed the La Liga season as a “very long” one, stating that the players had negotiated numerous situations to reach the current scenario.

“It is a very long season in which we have all gone through many situations to get here. Now we find ourselves on the last day with two teams fighting for the title. This is the Spanish championship. We always seek to be competitive.”

“You had criticised me immensely back then”

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane had discussed the criticism from media during his pre-match conference, ahead of the match against Villareal.

“You had criticised me immensely back then (in the Huesca press conference). That’s part of football and that’s it. But I was just asking you to let the team work, we were the reigning champions and these lads deserve the chance to fight to the end. We’ll make our judgements at the end of the season. Working together we turned things around and here we are on the final day in LaLiga. We live for this feeling and we’re still in it,” he said as quoted by the official website of Real Madrid.

Zidane stated that Sergio Ramos had trained normally, adding that he would always provide the defender an opportunity in Spain’s Euro 2020 squad.

“I’m not the Spain coach. If you ask me, I’d always take Sergio. Whatever happens. He always gives everything he has. (Eden Hazard) He’s got a knock. It’s not much but we don’t want to risk him. He didn’t train today because something’s up. He won’t be available tomorrow. I’m thrilled for him (Karim Benzema). It was what he wanted and I’m really pleased for him. He’s been doing great things on the pitch, I hope the national side take advantage of his game,” concluded the Real Madrid manager.