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Alvarez's arrival boosts Atletico Madrid's La Liga hopes

Simeone said Alvarez could be available for Monday's La Liga opener at Villarreal

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Atletico Madrid's new signing Julian Alvarez poses as he holds a shirt with president Enrique Cerezo during the presentation. — Reuters

By Reuters

Published: Sun 18 Aug 2024, 6:56 PM

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone heaped praise on his new signing Julian Alvarez and expects great things from the 24-year-old Argentine forward as the club look to challenge Real Madrid and Barcelona for the big trophies.

Alvarez only joined Atletico last week after they paid Manchester City a deal reported by British media to be worth around 75 million euros ($82.7 million), Simeone said he could be available for Monday's La Liga opener at Villarreal.

"Julian (Alvarez) is a player we are all looking forward to seeing and who will help us to be better. It was all very sudden, so quick. He just arrived a little while ago, has been training for four days but has been adapting fast," Simeone told a press conference on Sunday.

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"But I see him with a lot of enthusiasm, knowing where he is coming from and understanding where he is heading towards. His characteristics fit to the Atleti DNA."

After spending over 150 million euros on Alvarez, Spain Euro 2024-winning defender Robin Le Normand and last season's LaLiga top scorer Alexander Sorloth, Simeone played down title expectations.

With negotiations to sign Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher lingering, Simeone said they still need to add more players to be competitive against a Real Madrid side who won the Champions League and LaLiga double last season before recruiting France captain Kylian Mbappe.

"Real Madrid start the season as the best team and will have to prove it with the wonderful players they have while all the rest of us will be behind to compete against them," Simeone said.

"We haven't closed the squad yet, apart from not closing it yet, we need to focus on tomorrow's game and see game by game how the team progress.

"Barcelona continue to have a very good team, Real continue to grow with players who are phenomenal but it's clear for me that we have to think about ourselves."

Meanwhile, Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski said he was proud of his team's performance in a 2-1 comeback win at Valencia in their LaLiga season opener on Saturday, and he praised his side's youngsters who started in place of several injured players.

With Ilkay Gundogan, Pedri, Gavi, Ronald Araujo and Frenkie De Jong all out, new manager Hansi Flick gave 20-year-old academy midfielder Marc Casado his senior debut, playing alongside three 17-year-olds in Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi and Marc Bernal.

Nevertheless, Barca showed enough strength to fight back and win thanks to a Lewandowski brace.

"It was very important to start with a win in such a difficult stadium and with the problems we faced," Lewandowski told Movistar Plus.

"We didn't play well for the first 20 to 25 minutes. In the first half we had problems to get close to their box but then we started playing much better and we did it with three or four very young players.

"If you can win like this with such young players it is something special and they have shown a big potential. No signs of the lack of experience, they played very well with possession and without the ball. We could have won by a larger margin, but it's great to start the season with a win."

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Reuters

Published: Sun 18 Aug 2024, 6:56 PM

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