Cholo backs Julián and reveals who he'd have given the Ballon d'Or to | OneFootball

El Cholo spoke after Atlético de Madrid's defeat at the hands of Barcelona, where he backed the Spider and highlighted the Brazilian forward.

Atlético de Madrid fell 3-1 in their visit to Barcelona on matchday 19 of La Liga, a defeat at Camp Nou where Julián Álvarez did not have one of his best nights and was criticized by the Spanish press; which prompted a fervent defense from Diego Simeone, who took the opportunity to praise Raphinha.

When asked about the discreet performance by the world champion with the Argentine National Team, Cholo was blunt in his response, supporting the native of Calchín: “Julián has performed at a very high level since he arrived, but he is human and can also have a bad game, it's something that happens to everyone. You have a bad day at work and it can happen to him because he is a person like all of us”.

Another point in the press conference was his remarks about Raphinha, whom he previously praised and who scored the equalizer, the starting point for Barcelona's comeback, along with a comment that did not go unnoticed: “I love him. He plays everywhere, wherever they put him. And he scores beautiful goals. I don't know how he didn't win the Ballon d'Or. I choose him”, he expressed, deepening the controversy regarding the choice of Ousmané Dembelé's coronation in which the Brazilian finished in fifth place.

Regarding the course of the match, Simeone tried to see the glass half full in view of the imminent challenges for his team. “I don't focus on the streak, I focus on today's match. I'm happy with the match, we competed very well against a team that plays very well. They found ways to hurt us. We could have done better defensively, but they are very good. In the second half, we had more chances where we lacked the decisiveness that sometimes doesn't appear. The 3-1 might not reflect what happened in the match. I'm leaving with many positive things for what's to come”, he explained.

“The result is fair, they scored three goals and we scored one”, he confirmed regarding his team's lack of goals in their visit to the Catalan squad, which distances them from the top of the standings.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.