Messi is the decisive factor- Simeone

Football News: Atletico manager Diego Simone is not optimistic about Atletico Madrid’s La Liga chances this season because of the Barcelona star Lionel Messi.

Lionel Messi News: Messi slim the chances of Atletico Madrid hauling Barcelona in the title race.

Now Atletico Madrid is nine points away from the La Liga leaders after they won their last match against Deportivo by 1-0 goals, on the other hand Barcelona was about to face their first defeat of this season  against Sevilla in their last match but Messi came on the ground a turn things around for Barcelona rally from 2-0 down to 2-2 against Sevilla.

Simeone believes that it is Lionel Messi that making the difference between the two teams.

Simeone voiced: "We're having a very important league campaign. We've already seen what happened at Sevilla,"

"Without Messi, Sevilla would have won 2-0. With Messi on the pitch, Barca won 2-0, although the final score was 2-2.

"Messi is the decisive factor. We want to keep improving our numbers from last season."

Atletico Madrid missed their star man Antonio Griezmannn in their last match due to suspension, but it was Gameiro who scored the solitary goal for Atletico Madrid and gave them the full three points from that match.

Though the Argentine manager is not happy with his team’s performance in the second half against their counterpart, but he is happy with the result they have got from that match.

He stated: "We had the difficulty of the suspended players but we responded with a result that we needed,"

"The first half was better than the second, we got the goal and we had another chance.

"We faced a team in need of results. Deportivo played an intense game, with danger, they never wanted to give up the game, and we couldn't finish it off."