Sparta coach Lars Friis praised his counterpart Diego Simeone ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League league match with Atlético Madrid. According to him, the 54-year-old Argentine did an amazing job in 13 years on the bench of the Spanish team. He also stated that the reigning Czech champions will not approach the match against a big favorite in such a way that they have nothing to lose. Despite a string of injuries, he believes he will be able to field a strong squad.
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Coach Lars Friis was able to pull Sparta up to the Champions League Source: Profimedia
Sparta is missing Veljko Birmančevič, Ángelo Preciado, Jaroslav Zelený and Imanol García, defenders Elias Cobbaut and Asger Sörensen were also injured in Saturday’s duel with Teplice.
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“We only have three stoppers. We don’t have that many options. Maybe we’ll do something different, but I won’t tell you right now. For a long time we managed to have players ready, but now unfortunately injury after injury is coming. That too is part of football. We were lucky, but it has limited us in the last four weeks,” said Friis.
“But we will find a way to build a strong lineup. It is of course a loss when we lose a player like against Teplice. We’ll deal with it. We still have a wide squad,” said the Danish coach.
Simeone has been coaching Atlético, for which he also played, since December 2011. On Saturday against Alavés, he coached the 700th match on his bench. Among other things, Atlético won the Europa League, UEFA Super Cup and the Spanish League twice under him, making it the only time to break the dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
“It’s a strong, top team from one of the top three leagues in the world. They have a lot of first-class players and a very strong identity, they are famous mainly for their defense. But they are also very dangerous in attack. Coach Simeone is a key factor for them. It is no coincidence what DNA he has built in the team,” said Friis.
He called Simeone a great coach. “He has done an amazing job at Atlético. He was given the trust at the beginning of his coaching career and proved that he has what it takes. He gradually adapted to the development. In the beginning, he was very direct, very careful about his style, but when it comes to building a game or a system, he is very pragmatic today. He creates different formations, 4-4-2, 3-5-2. His journey to becoming an icon for the whole club was amazing. In this, he is an inspiration not only to me, but also to other coaches. The club keeps him all the time and builds its success on him,” said Friis.
He doesn’t want Letenští to approach the match as if they have nothing to lose. “We are not set up like that. The Champions League has the best teams in the world. We have to approach it a little differently than in the Czech league. We have to be strong in defense, but also in attack we have to work as a team,” said Friis, whose charges have won only two of the last 11 competitive games.
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