Diego Simeone gives verdict on Man Utd under Michael Carrick after 2-0 Atletico Madrid win

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has given his verdict on Manchester United after his side beat Michael Carrick’s team at home in the Champions League.

Man Utd suffered a 2-0 defeat to Atletico at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano on Tuesday evening.

Pablo Barrios put Atletico in the lead after just one minute, with Ademola Lookman securing the win for the Spanish club in the 79th minute.

Man Utd had defender Leny Yoro sent off in the 74th minute.

The result saw Man Utd continue their hugely disappointing start to the season, with Carrick expected to come under more pressure.

After the game, Atletico manager Simeone praised his own side, but he also had some positive comments about Man Utd.

Simeone believes that Man Utd press high well, but the Atletico boss has also noted that his side exploited the Red Devils on the wings.

ESPN quotes Simeone as saying: “We were lucky to start the game on the front foot, with the first goal.

“We knew they’d press high, [United] do that well, but we knew that if we beat that first press we could get into important positions.

“We knew we could hurt them on the wings.

“We had chances to go further ahead on the scoreboard.

“They had one dangerous chance in the first half, but we had a better game, we had more chances.

“The team was always looking for more.”

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Carrick has also given his take on Man Utd’s defeat to Atletico.

The Man Utd manager told the club’s official website: “It is a tough enough place to come and to get the start we had obviously puts us in a more difficult situation but I thought we grew into the game.

“We had four big chances, big opportunities and the game can look very different.

“They were really good opportunities as well, they weren’t just little half ones.

“I thought we didn’t finish the first half particularly well, started the second half a little bit better and started having some control without having a real threat.

“Then we had Bruno’s chance again, another good opportunity, and then the red card.

“That goes against us and then it’s difficult after that.

“It is mixed [feelings], understanding it’s a tough place to come anyway, they make it that way and we knew that and were prepared for that, but disappointed with the chances we had that we haven’t had more [goals].”

Carrick continued: “There’s probably not many teams that would come here and have those chances against them [Atleti], so we’ve done a lot of things good tonight.

“The game was really close and in the balance, take away that first minute which is a goal – obviously a major part of it – but take away that and we were right in the game going through the second half and I thought there was a really big finish for us.”

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