Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone bemoaned his side s wastefulness in front of goal after they were held to a 0-0 home draw by Espanyol.
Simeone s side had 25 shots and mustered 2.71 expected goals on Wednesday, yet could not get over the line against one of LaLiga s promoted teams.
Visiting goalkeeper Joan Garcia made seven saves to ensure Espanyol took what may prove to be a valuable point in their bid to stay up this season.
Simeone said his side were undone by a lack of precision in front of goal.
It worries me, as always, but I can t stop appreciating the good game the team played. When you have five clear goalscoring opportunities like the ones we had? Simeone told Movistar.
Well, they didn t go in, but the opportunities we created were the result of our play, not by chance. We expected to win, but they defended well and we were not convincing. If you don t score, it s very difficult.
The team played very well, they made a very strong start to the first half. Then we dropped off a bit, that s why we made the changes. In the second half, we didn t have so many chances to score, but we played well.
6 Atletico s Alexander Sorlothis suffering his worst run without scoring in in 2024 (six shots)
Block
Block
Miss
Miss
Saved
Saved
Drought.
— OptaJose (@OptaJose)
Simeone made three changes at half-time to freshen things up, with Antoine Griezmann, Marcos Llorente and Pablo Barrios coming on, although eyebrows were raised when struggling striker Alexander Sorloth, a big-money addition from Villarreal, was replaced by defender Reinildo.
We never changed the system, we continued with a 5-3-2 to balance the team, which was starting to split, Simeone explained.
The opponent could also hurt us and we balanced the middle with Llorente and Barrios.
