"Inter are among the four or five best teams in Europe"

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Pablo Simeone praised Inter, their opponents in the last 16 of the Champions League, who he considered to be among "the four or five best teams in Europe at the moment", while envisioning a "match of duels" on Tuesday that will be won by whoever wins the most.

"We have to think that Inter are among the best four or five teams in Europe at the moment, because the Serie A speaks for itself, the way they are doing it; the way they played in the Champions League last season, making a great final against Manchester City, and now they are competing with even more confidence," he said from the San Siro stadium, the venue for Tuesday's first-leg clash.

"I really like the way Inter play. I've been saying that for a long time. They play concretely, simply and sometimes the simple things are the ones that work best. They work collectively as a team. It will be a game, I guess, of duels. Whoever wins the most duels will have the best chance of getting closer to victory," he said.

Asked if it will be the most demanding game so far this season for Atletico, he said: "Let's see, so far we've played Real Madrid, who are a very important opponent, at the same level as Inter. We're on that similar line to that game we've played against Real Madrid, especially in the Super Cup and the Copa del Rey."

"We need to play with the intensity we played in the last Copa del Rey games and the other day with Las Palmas. Obviously, we're going to face an opponent who are in a great moment, who have the weapons to attack from any side and, taking risks to sustain the attack, we'll play where we think we can hurt them," he said.

Marcos Llorente is once again aiming to be a striker. "He has a different characteristic to the other