{"id":324805,"date":"2025-12-04T12:37:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T12:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324805\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T12:37:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T12:37:34","slug":"diego-simeone-heaps-praise-raphinha-after-barcelona-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324805\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Simeone heaps praise Raphinha after Barcelona defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\/2025\/12\/02\/barcelona-atletico-madrid-la-liga-report\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Atletico Madrid were beaten by Barcelona<\/a> on Tuesday, which brought to an end their seven-match winning run across all competitions. Los Colchoneros had taken the lead early on courtesy of Alex Baena, but goals from Raphinha, Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres ensured a disappointing defeat.<\/p>\n<p>As per <a href=\"https:\/\/as.com\/futbol\/primera\/simeone-no-se-como-raphinha-no-gano-el-balon-de-oro-f202512-n\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Diario AS<\/a>, head coach Diego Simeone gave his thoughts on proceedings at the Spotify Camp Nou.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started well, but they managed to hurt us inside, with the ball filtered inside. In the second half it was the opposite: they started a little better but, after 20 minutes, we were the ones who looked for the game. We couldn\u2019t complete it, but I liked the team. We know that they have very good feet and that they play with a lot of people inside so that disorder appears in the rival centre-backs, and today it worked very well for them. But I feel very calm and happy with what the team did. This will help us to improve. Now, a tough match also in Bilbao.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Simeone was also asked about Raphinha, whom he has spoken very highly of in the past. He heaped further praise on the Barcelona winger, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\/2025\/12\/02\/barcelona-atletico-madrid-la-liga-player-ratings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who was decisive against his Atleti side<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRaphinha is an incredible player. He can play everywhere. As a winger, as a midfielder, as a striker, or even as a wing back. He can score, can create, he presses and runs. I don\u2019t know how he didn\u2019t win the Ballon d\u2019Or. For me, I would chose him always\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"4610\" height=\"3089\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fc-barcelona-v-atletico-de-madrid-laliga-ea-sports-1-min.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-325323 has-webp\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:4610\/3089;max-width:2048px\"\/>Image via Eric Alonso\/Getty ImagesSimeone on Baena, Cardoso injuries<\/p>\n<p>Simeone spoke glowingly on Baena, who was forced off early in the second half with a hamstring injury, while he also addressed the injury to Johnny Cardoso, who only lasted 14 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is a differential player of ours. He is growing a lot and has personality and courage to play anywhere you tell him. It was a A shame about (Cardoso\u2019s) injury and at the start of the match. It moved the change that we hoped to make later, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atletico Madrid were beaten by Barcelona on Tuesday, which brought to an end their seven-match winning run across&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-324805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}