MADRID — Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke said his team must play with “personality” to stop Barcelona mounting a Champions League quarter-final comeback.
The Rojiblancos earned a 2-0 first-leg win at Camp Nou last week and host the Spanish champions on Tuesday aiming to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2017.
Five-time winners Barcelona reached the final four last season and arrive at the Metropolitano stadium determined to fight their way back into the tie and ramp up the pressure on the hosts.
“It’s hugely important to beat the press they usually put on,” Koke said according to AFP.
“They’re a team that presses very high, that pushes their line almost up to the halfway line, that presses you, that suffocates you.
“That’s where our personality comes in, when it’s time to play, to want the ball, to make ourselves available, to make runs in behind.”
The match is the third between the sides in the last fortnight and the sixth they have played this season, with Atletico knocking Barca out in the Copa del Rey semi-finals.
“We’ve faced each other many times throughout this year,” continued the midfielder.
“We know each other perfectly, and it’s going to be very important to take the ball off them, attack the spaces well, and have the personality to want the ball and not lose it.”
Koke scored against Barca in the 2014 quarter-finals as Atletico — who have never won the competition — went on to reach the final, as they did in 2016, losing on both occasions to rivals Real Madrid.
“I’ve watched that goal quite a few times,” admitted Koke.
“It’s true that when these kinds of matches start coming around, you try to motivate yourself and you try to visualise a lot of positive things that happened, like in 2014, like in 2016, and like in the first leg a week ago.”
Atletico coach Diego Simeone kept his cards close to his chest ahead of the second leg, refusing to say whether goalkeeper Jan Oblak was fit to start or elaborate much on anything at all.
“We’re fully aware of the strong opponent we’ll have in front of us,” said the coach. “But we’re also clear about our objective, which is to go through.”
