How will Atletico Madrid qualify? Koke reveals the plan to eliminate Barcelona from the Champions League

Atletico Madrid midfielder, Koke, confirmed on Monday that his team is required to play with a “strong personality” to prevent Barcelona from achieving a comeback in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
“Rojiblancos” won the first leg 2-0 at Camp Nou last week, before hosting the return match on Tuesday (23:00 pm UAE time), aspiring to return to the semi-finals for the first time since 2017.
The Catalan giant reached the last four last season, and arrives at the Metropolitano Stadium determined to turn the tables and put pressure on its host from the beginning.
“It is very important to overcome the pressure they usually impose,” Koke told reporters.
He continued: “It is a team that relies on very high pressure. It pushes its lines until near the midfield line, pressuring you and suffocating you.”
He added: “And here our personality appears, when it is time to play, in the desire to possess the ball, make ourselves available, and make movements in the spaces behind the defense.”
This is the third match between the two teams in the past two weeks, and the sixth between them this season, as Atletico eliminated Barcelona from the Spanish Cup semi-finals.
“We have faced each other many times throughout this year,” the midfielder added.
He added, “We know each other well, and it will be very important to seize the ball from them, exploit the spaces well, and have the necessary personality to demand the ball and not give it away.”
Koke had scored against the Catalan giants when they met in the quarter-finals of the 2014 edition, and then the capital club, which had never won the competition title, succeeded in reaching the final, as it did in 2016, before losing on both occasions to its neighbor Real.
“I’ve seen that goal many times,” Koke admitted.
He added, “It is true that as matches like these approach, you try to motivate yourself and imagine a lot of positive things that happened, like in 2014, like 2016, and also the first leg a week ago.”
For his part, Atletico’s Argentine coach Diego Simeone preferred not to reveal his cards before the return match, refusing to confirm the readiness of Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak to participate primarily or to go into additional details.
Simeone said: “We are fully aware of the strength of the opponent we will face, but at the same time we are clear about our goal, which is to qualify.”