Atletico Madrid boss Simeone once again weighed in on the topic of fans throwing objects during last weekend's Madrid derby in his pre-Champions League conference, emphasizing that those who provoked the fans should also be punished and expressing his focus on the upcoming match against Benfica.
On his comments after the derby, Simeone said, "I'm fine, I'm calm. What I said that day, I will never change. I unequivocally reject violent behavior and oppose people who pick fights. My views have been misinterpreted and the media always interpret them as they need to, but that's not my problem. Just like Big Martin was punished for his behavior in the Copa America, this kind of debate is good for soccer. Courtois ran into this kind of thing the other day, but whoever it is that gets punished for someone else's provocation, it shouldn't be. We live in a very sensitive society that requires absolute firmness."
On the question of whether it was inappropriate to conflate the behavior of fans throwing things with players' provocations, Simeone said, "It's difficult to explain. Television needs attention, coaches have to speak, I'm not an emotionless machine. I receive a lot of messages, people thank me for speaking, there is empathy. I put myself first and thought about what would happen if the roles were swapped. We need to be absolutely firm and reject extreme fans. But for now, we need to keep the focus on Benfica."
Speaking about whether it was difficult to focus on preparing for the Champions League, Simeone said, "It's not been an easy few days, the club is dealing with that incident, one person involved has been found and more will be found. The team is focusing on tomorrow's game and we will train more calmly."
On his return to the Stadium of Light, Simeone said, "I'm very happy, I've experienced wonderful moments here. When we were here for the Champions League final, it was a dream moment for every fan and player. We retain that feeling and hope to win the title again."
In response to questions about the crowd's anger at opposing players running into the celebration area, Simeone said, "The game is over and people have to take responsibility for what happened. It's a great opportunity for Atletico to become strong. I firmly reject extreme fans, these people should not be in the stadium. But I also ask people to reflect on the situation and see if they can take the provocation of the players into account and penalize them."
Speaking about Griezmann's decision to withdraw from the French squad, Simeone said, "I think it's a particularly good decision for Antoine to make, knowing that he has given everything to the national team. It will allow him to get more rest and hopefully we will continue to have him as before because he is very important for us."
On Benfica, Simeone said, "We don't have much time to prepare for the game, but we have to play the game we want to play and get the game going in a direction where we can hurt our opponents."
On João Felix's performance at Atletico, Simeone said, "I think we both tried our best for that and we both tried to do our best in our respective positions."
