Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has allayed fears over the severity of the injury suffered by striker Diego Costa in Sunday's 2-0 derby victory at Getafe, which moved Los Rojiblancos a step closer to the Spanish Primera Liga title.
The 25-year-old Brazil-born forward suffered a worrying-looking injury after colliding with a post in scoring his side’s second goal and left the field on a stretcher, but Atletico moved quickly to play down concerns it could be anything serious.
“Luckily, Diego Costa only has a wound after hitting the post,” the club posted on Twitter.
And Simeone said at his post-match press conference: “He is happy and well. One more cut does not do anything to this tiger.”
The triumph saw Simeone’s side regain their three-point lead at the top of La Liga, although it was not a performance to savour.
Atletico struggled to break down their against their relegation-threatened Madrid rivals, with Diego Godin’s goal the only highlight of a poor first half.
Not even the dismissals of Angel Lafita and Alexis could inspire the leaders, who saw Costa miss a penalty before making amends with his late goal.
“The team did a great job. It was a very complicated fixture,” Simeone said. “The players showed effort and ambition to achieve a very important result. This takes us to where we wanted to be, with five rounds to go. There are five finals to go, and we’ll play them as such.
“Now we focus on the fixture with Elche (on Friday), which is the next final we have. We won’t think about anything else but preparing for it and resting, so the players get to it in good condition.
“From now on I change what I said about playing match by match. For all of the fans, now we play final by final.
“Everyone put in a lot of effort. With humility and the support of the fans, the victory away from home was achieved. I am looking to next Friday, with a full stadium, and preparing to play one of the remaining finals.”
Barcelona’s shock 1-0 defeat at Granada on Saturday evening meant Atletico can even now afford to lose one of their remaining five games and still be crowned champions.
But Simeone urged his players not to worry about what Barca and second-placed Real Madrid get up to and concentrate only on their own objectives.
“I always said we depended on ourselves and I stick to it,” the Argentinian added. “This situation depends on the ambition, the enthusiasm, the effort, the work and most of all the team’s humility.”
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