MADRID // Atletico Madrid’s top scorer Diego Costa has been included in the squad for Sunday’s Primera Liga game at Getafe after shaking off a thigh strain
Brazil-born forward Costa missed Wednesday’s Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg win against Barcelona after picking up the injury in the first leg the previous week.
Costa, who has 25 league goals this term, was the final name in the 19-man squad for the game at Getafe that Atletico published on their official Twitter feed.
Atletico are involved in a three-way title fight with Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Diego Simeone, the Atletico coach, said his team could not afford to believe the hype after dumping Barca out of Europe.
“The league is very advanced and we are in a very nice position, but to have the same options as today we have to play very well tomorrow,” he said.” After every game there is less to go and we know what we are playing for, but that depends on how we respond as a team. More than ever we have to live game by game.
“There are four Spanish teams in European semi-finals and we are first in that league. That makes us proud but also motivates and strengthens us. Tomorrow we will have to roll up our sleeves and run once more.”
In Saturday’s early matches, Santi Mina scored with eight minutes to go to earn Celta Vigo a 2-2 home draw against Real Sociedad while Jeremy Perbet’s goal five minutes into stoppage time gave European hopefuls Villarreal a 1-0 win over Levante.
Elsewhere, Bernd Schuster, the former Real Madrid coach, has branded holders Bayern Munich “uninspired and dreary” ahead of their Uefa Champions League semi-final with the Spanish giants in two weeks.
“What Bayern have recently offered in the Bundesliga and against Manchester United was uninspired and so dreary,” Schuster, who coached Real from 1988 to 1990, told German daily Bild.
European champions Bayern won this season's Bundesliga title with a record seven games to spare last month and beat United 3-1 on Wednesday in their Champions League quarter-final, second leg tie to progress 4-2 on aggregate.
Bayern will face Real at Madrid's Bernabeu stadium on April 23 with the second leg at the Allianz Arena on April 29.
Schuster said the absence of Bayern’s playmaker, Thiago Alcantara, through injury has weakened their passing game, and the 54 year old rates Munich’s chases as “50-50” against Madrid.
Bayern are too reliant on their short-passing game, according to Schuster.
“When it works, everything is wonderful, but woeful when it doesn’t,” the German said.
The key battle when Bayern face Madrid will be in midfield, according to Schuster, with the likes of Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Gotze and Thomas Muller up against Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso and Gareth Bale.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
