'La Liga more competitive without Messi-Ronaldo rivalry'
Diego Simeone believes that La Liga has become more intense and competitive due to the absence of Lionel Messi and Cristano Ronaldo rivalry. The competition between Ronaldo and Messi saw Real Madrid and Barcelona thrash most teams home or away. Their individual competition egged both teams to try and win every point possible.
Diego Simeone for one in not complaining about the absence of Messi and Ronaldo’s rivalry. His words may even be a dig towards Real Madrid who have now failed to win in their last five games after losing to Levante yesterday.
"La Liga is fantastic at the moment," the Atletico boss told a news conference.
"It's chaotic, all the teams are competing and fighting for points. It's much more competitive than when Ronaldo and Messi defined the championship," he added.
Atletico themselves were held to a 1-1 draw by Villarreal and lie in fourth in the table, two points about city rivals Real on fifth position.
"We are only thinking about ourselves. Today was a tough, intense game against a strong rival. We tried to play hard in the first half to counter [Villarreal's] need for the win.
"In the second half, we understood that we could try to be more offensive in order to exploit the spaces they left.
With Lionel Messi out of the picture for at least three weeks following a fracture in his arm during Barcelona’s 4-2 win, the scrap for points might get even more interesting in the coming weeks. Barcelona will now have to prepare for El Clasico against Real Madrid on October 28th without their key player and if one thing is certain, none of Real Madrid or Barcelona are going to find the upcoming La Liga fixtures very relaxing.
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