GARCÍA PIMIENTA: "I'M DEVASTATED FOR THE BOYS, THEY PUT IN SO MUCH EFFORT"

As you would expect, Xavi García Pimienta was visibly disappointed following the result at the Metropolitano. In his post-match interview, he said, "I'm devastated for the boys, they put in so much effort. It is not easy to come here and push Atlético de Madrid in the way that we did. They took the lead which makes it even harder, but we played well and took our chances to get 3-1 up. However after that, especially when they brought on fresh legs, they were the better side. They put us under a lot of pressure and created several chances. We tried to stay solid in defence but couldn't quite manage it. It is a shame that we're going home empty-handed."

Our Head Coach was full of praise for the opposition, stating, "We have to show respect to tonight's opponent. Their substitutions gave them control of the game, piling the pressure on us. We found it hard to get out of our own half without speaking of creating further chances. They scored some wonderful goals as well - Lino's long-range effort and Griezmann's touch... When you play against teams of this quality, these things happen. I'm obviously devastated, but I tip my hat to my players, they showed fight and played brilliantly during the first half. It really was a great effort. A draw would have been a fair result and an appropriate reward for our efforts."

Looking forward to the next match, which will be Jesús Navas's final game at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, "I'm sure that the fans will be very proud of this performance today, despite the result. Hopefully we can make Saturday a special day for Jesús by playing well and getting the result we want."