Diego Simeone said the numbers don’t lie about his Champions League success after leading Atletico Madrid to another quarter-final of the competition.
Atlético reached the quarter-finals of UEFA’s flagship competition despite losing 3-2 to Tottenham in the second leg on Wednesday, with the damage done in Madrid eight days ago.
The La Liga side emerged victorious 7-5 on aggregate, coming from behind twice at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before a late Xavi Simons penalty sealed victory for the hosts.
Simeone has made it through eight different Champions League round of 16 ties, as many as José Mourinho and only behind Pep Guardiola (14) and Carlo Ancelotti (13) in Champions League history.
“There are times when it is not necessary to talk, the numbers speak for themselves,” Simeone told reporters about his latest achievement.
“We have to give the greatest energy we have, the quality to reinvent ourselves. The effort made an enormous effort.
“The team did not start well, the three-goal advantage did not come well. We tied, it was 2-1, we equalized, we had situations to close and the final penalty came.”
31 – Atlético de Madrid has scored 31 goals in 12 games in 2025/26 @Champions Leagueits highest figure in a single edition of the competition in its history.
Punch. pic.twitter.com/BH9M26tJmk
— OptaJosé (@OptaJose) March 18, 2026
But not only are those numbers impressive, but with their two goals against Spurs, only Paris Saint-Germain (34) and Bayern Munich (32) have scored more than Atlético’s 31 in the Champions League in 2025-26.
Furthermore, the only two occasions on which Atlético have scored up to seven goals in total in a Champions League tie have been in their last two ties this season, having previously beaten Club Brugge 7-4 in the play-offs.
And their reward is yet another clash with Barcelona, having played the Blaugrana three times this campaign, the last of which saw Simeone’s team eliminate them in the two-legged Copa del Rey semi-finals.
“Yes, it is a moment to be happy as a club, as a team, with the joy of our people, who will take this step to the quarterfinals,” Simeone added.
“When you enter here the road will be tough, like in previous situations when we reached the final.
“We will have to compete like this. It will be difficult because we will face the team from Europe that attacks better, but we will really want to compete.”
It was also a special outing for Julián Álvarez, who became the fourth player to score and assist in both games of a Champions League tie (two goals, one assist in the first leg, 1 goal, 1 assist in the second leg).
The others are Alessandro Del Piero (1997-98 semi-final, Juventus vs Monaco), Kaká (2011-12 quarter-finals, Real Madrid vs APOEL) and Robert Lewandowski (2019-20 round of 16, Bayern Munich vs Chelsea).
“We knew it wouldn’t be easy against a difficult team that plays very well,” Álvarez said of Atlético’s performance.
“But with the three-goal lead from the first leg, we knew how to control the pace of the game.
“Obviously we wanted to win that night and we had opportunities to do so, but we are happy to advance to the quarterfinals.”
