The invoice that Simeone kept for Xavi

They couldn’t be more antagonistic as players and, surely, their teams have been too since they became coaches. We talked about football styles and priorities. The differences continue. They were buried, but in the reunion that is going to take place this Sunday, Diego Pablo Simeon He will present himself with a yellowish invoice that he has kept in his wallet since 2016.

Simeone had been waiting for Xavi for six years to make a comment that hurt him ugly. The rojiblanco coach anticipated it before both teams meet on the pitch in a duel that the azulgrana described as the final. “They are three vital points that are practically worth sixbecause we would put ourselves fourth and leave them behind”, analyzed Xavi, who picked up the glove that his colleague threw at him.

“Xavi commented in 2016 that Atlético’s style was not for big teams,” said Simeone at his press conference, prior to the one in Sant Joan Despí. He specified that he was in the program Valdan Universe.

“Now he is going to have the possibility, with the arrival of so many footballers, to be able to display everything he is looking for, what he wants, what he imagines and what he has been growing from his cradle in Barcelona,” argued Simeone, who truffled his words with praise to sweeten the background of his remarks: “I like how Barcelona plays”.

-Xavi: “I don’t think Barça understood Atlético’s style, it doesn’t fit”
-Simeone: “When you only lived with one situation in your life, you don’t understand other situations.” #LaCasaDelFootball pic.twitter.com/0icchjYh2w

– Soccer on Movistar Plus+ (@MovistarFutbol) February 5, 2022

A point of superiority

The Argentine came to say that Xavi has only known one reality in football for having spent his entire career at the same club. Simeone treated him with the point of superiority with which he believed that Xavi had in that television report.

“When you only lived with one situation in your life, you don’t understand other situations”, said of Xavi. “When you had the opportunity to turn around and have different situations in your life, you understand that not everything is one thing,” Simeone said of himself, praising himself for his own ability to adapt.

“What Xavi thinks is very respectable,” he continued, although he wants to see how he manages against this impoverished Barça despite the signings of the strikers. “Now it’s going to have eight players for three places, it’s not easy,” he added, calling on him to maintain “the Barcelona style of a lifetime.”

The merit of conviction

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And that is what Xavi intends, who supported the thesis that he believed he had exposed in 2016. “I don’t think that Barça, the fans and the environment understood the idea of ​​playing for Atlético, it doesn’t fit,” he said. “They would not understand that we locked ourselves in a low block behind, with eleven players in the area,” he added, giving more arguments and more nuances.

“It is legal, obviously, you can play the way you want and win like that. Atlético has done it: two Leagues and very close to the Champions League. I am not saying that he is without merit or that he is not competitive and that I do not admire him as a coach for how he convinces his players to run and defend in a low block. It is not a criticism. It’s not our style. And you [los periodistas] You would be the first to criticize him.”