Atletico Madrid midfielder Connor Gallagher has stated that the club has moved on from their painful exit from the UCL round of 16, emphasizing focus ahead of this Sunday’s crunch Laliga fixture against Barcelona.
The Rojiblancos exited Europe top tier competition in controversial fashion after losing on penalties to arch-rivals Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Argentina international Julian Alvarez was deemed to have touched the ball twice in the shootout, as the reigning champions progressed to the next round to face English side Arsenal.
Gallagher, who scored in the first minute of the encounter to level the tie, stressed that the club is ready to take on the league leaders as they look to close the gap to the top of the table.
He said: “It [Champions League] is a performance to be proud of and we’re gonna take that feeling that we had from the loss and take it into our next match as motivation. Maybe we didn’t have all the luck in that game, which is unfortunate, but you can say that a lot of times this season we did.
If he [Álvarez] touched it twice then what can the ref do? It is what it is. If there are rules there, those are the rules.
The game is done so it doesn’t change anything”, he added.
Atletico Madrid defeated the Catalan giants in the reverse fixture in December and recently played out an entertaining 4-4 draw against them in the Copa Del Rey semifinals first leg last month.
“Of course it can be difficult on the mental side of things to get over a loss like we did and make sure we are 100 prepared for such a big game, but we can use it as motivation and fire to give our best performance against Barcelona because they are the team to beat”, the England international continued.
Diego Simeone’s side are third on the standings with 56 points, a lone point behind both Barcelona and Real Madrid, with the former possessing the luxury of a game in hand.
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