Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone on Wednesday hailed his players for investing their ‘soul’ into Tuesday’s triumph over Bayer Leverkusen on penalties in the UEFAChampions League round of 16. Mario Suarez’s early goal cancelled out the Germans’ advantage in the tie from the first leg, before Jan Oblak’s shootout heroics,coupled with Fernando Torres’ decisive spot-kick, sent Los Colchoneros into the quarterfinals.
“All matches are the same for us,” Simeone, who is expected tosign a new contract with Atleti this week, said. “We are what people saw tonight: a team that sometimes don’t play well but put their soul into the game. This victory gives us innerstrength to keep on competing in every match.”