Thursday 26 February 2015 10:28, UK
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone is confident his side will still progress to the Champions League last eight, despite their 1-0 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday.
The La Liga champions suffered just their second away loss in Europe’s premier club competition since September 2013 in their last-16 first-leg tie at the BayArena.
But Simeone, who saw midfielder Tiago Mendes sent off 14 minutes from time and striker Fernando Torres have a second-half equaliser questionably ruled out, still feels Atletico have a good chance of making it through to the quarter-finals in three weeks’ time.
"They play as they do and they do it well," he said
"We each had a clear chance and they took theirs and we didn't. It could have been a worse result. But I am confident for the return leg."
Meanwhile, Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who made two impressive first-half stops to keep the scoreline goalless, praised the home team’s mental strength after some disappointing league results of late.
"This was a very, very good game from us," Leno said.
"We showed a reaction to the criticism of the past week. We had some bad games but tonight we bounced back."
