HUMILITY LEADS TO WIN FOR ATLETICO

Simeone hails team's resilience as they have to 'suffer' before coach gets his first win at Barca

- Reuters

BARCELONA - Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone highlighted his side's resilience after they beat Barcelona 2-1 and climbed atop the Spanish La Liga on Dec 21 with their 12th straight win in all competitions.

The Argentinian acknowledged Barca were the better side for much of the game and highlighted his players' fighting spirit after they rallied from a goal down to pick up their first league victory away to the Catalan side since 2006, five years before his arrival at the club.

"I'm very happy with the team's effort. We were humble enough to suffer and to defend against a team that play very well. In the first half and I think until our goal, they were far superior to us," Simeone told reporters.

"Then I think we started to find our feet a bit in the game, and we saw that we could compete in the game. The team managed to hold on."

Barcelona took the lead after 30 minutes, with Pedri both the architect and scorer of the goal.