Atletico coach Simeone avoiding 'favorite' tag ahead of Tottenham clash

MADRID, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Atletico Madrid entertains Tottenham in the first-leg of its Champions League last 16 tie with the Spanish side seemingly the favorite against a team in a crisis of form and results, but Diego Simeone warned his players to stay alert.

The game sees midfielder Conor Gallagher return to Madrid just two months after joining Tottenham in the January transfer window, but Gallagher's fortunes since moving to North London only serve to highlight his side's problems.

The midfielder has still to win while in a Tottenham shirt in the Premier League in eight matches that have seen Tottenham slide into the heart of the Premier League relegation battle, just one point above the bottom three.

Igor Tudor's appointment as Tottenham coach has not had the instant impact the Croatian coach is known for, with painful defeats against Arsenal, Fulham and at home to Crystal Palace on Tuesday night which saw Tottenham opening the scoring in the 38th minute yet somehow manage to trail 3-1 at halftime, but which time Micky van de Ven had been sent off.

A long injury list including James Maddison, Mohammed Kudus clearly isn't helping, but last Tuesday, Tottenham looked like a team that had lost the plot, although speaking to the press on Monday, Atletico coach Simeone pointed out the London-based outfit's form in Europe.

"If you remember Tottenham finished fourth in the group stage, then we aren't favorites when you looked where we finished (14th)," pointed out Simeone.

"When you go into the pitch, you don't look at where you are in the table or the form you are in," he added, pointing out that "players want to win, they want to play well and I don't know anyone who thinks about the classification when they are about to shoot."

Atletico Madrid qualified for the Copa del Rey final last week, although Simeone's side was forced to cling on for a 4-3 aggregate win after losing the return leg 3-0 in Barcelona and Simeone made several changes at the weekend as his team beat Real Sociedad 3-2 in an anticipation of the Cup final.

"We try to manage training as best we can, always giving the players some free time to unwind a bit, even though there isn't much time for that," commented the coach on his team's hectic schedule. ■