Simeone: Our changes gave us greater strength, and Giuliano's start is done by few

Diego Simeone, the head coach of Atlético, spoke about his team's victory over Real Sociedad in the 5th round of La Liga, praising his players' performance and the changes that contributed to securing the match in the final minutes.

Simeone said: "The match lasts 90 minutes, and we experienced that against Liverpool and Atlético Bilbao, losing 3-0 in Bilbao, and we came away with the feeling that you don't know what happened; the match is long and has different phases."

He added: "Real Sociedad worked very well on the teamwork of Baina and Kang. In the first half, they had two dangerous chances, and we had two chances as well, but we didn't feel that either team was capable of winning; we weren't comfortable."

He continued: "In the second half, the same pattern continued, the substitutions gave us more strength, with Jonathan and Cardoso coming on, while Koke provided us with calmness, Arnau gave us more attacking power, the penalty was in our favor and gave us the lead."

He added: "The second goal was fantastic. Giuliano's goal, when he took the ball and went past three opponents, is something that only a few can do."

On the victory: "Everything is going hand in hand, it is very difficult to win without playing well, this time we took advantage of the periods of the match that were in our favor, and we managed to finish it off wonderfully."

He added: "Today we were lucky because we didn't go through what happened during the five minutes in Bilbao; if we hadn't achieved the result, they would have asked me about the changes, about taking out Peina and Kang, the changes worked well."

Regarding the match proceedings, he explained: "We took advantage of the periods of the match that were in our favor, we struggled in the first half, and in the second half our level gradually improved."