Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone said he felt his side's Copa del Rey quarterfinal against Barcelona remained very open, despite Wednesday night's 1-0 first leg defeat at the Camp Nou.
A tight game of few chances was decided with just six minutes left when Blaugrana superstar Lionel Messi fired in the rebound after his own penalty had been saved by visiting goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
Looking ahead to next Wednesday's return game at Atletico's Estadio Vicente Calderon, the Colchoneros boss told his post-match news conference that he had felt the game was under control until the goal came late on.
"There were not too many goal chances," said Simeone. "They had a lot of possession, but I thought the game was under control, even though we had few counterattacks or chances ourselves. Then the goal appeared. Now we know that the second leg will not be easy either. We are up against a rival who plays well, but the result means the tie is still open."
Simeone said his team had played better then when losing 3-1 at the Camp Nou in La Liga 10 days ago.
"It was not the same as the last day," he insisted. "We defended better. It is true we had few passages to attack in. I repeat that the game was pretty well under control, even though Barca had the ball."
The Argentine coach declined repeated requests by reporters for a comment on the key decision of the game. Referee Jose Luis Gonzalez awarded a spot-kick when a challenge from Colchoneros right-back Juanfran sent Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets sprawling during a scramble in the box after a Messi free kick hit the Atletico wall.
"We try never to talk about the officials," Simeone said. "Today is no different."
Atletico forwards Fernando Torres and Antoine Griezmann both started in attack, on the heels of their impressive outing in eliminating Real Madrid from the competition a week ago. They had much less luck here though, something which Simeone put down to Barca defending very well as a team at the moment.
"Barca have improved a lot in their last games, their pressure on the ball above all," he said. "It was difficult for us to come out with the ball. Barca [attackers] are working much harder when they lose the ball. And their defenders today played very well, in what they had to do."
Simeone denied that his players were in danger of being burned out by a heavy schedule, which will see five games against either Madrid or Barcelona in the first five weeks of 2015.
"The best thing for players is to compete," he said. "That makes you do things well. Tiredness does exist, of course, but the players have the will to compete and work hard and they keep the enthusiasm of these last years. We have competed until the end in all our three years. The players are used to doing this, to being in almost all the competitions."