Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone praised attacker Antoine Griezmann after his hat trick fired their team to a 4-1 comeback win at Athletic Bilbao in Sunday evening's La Liga meeting.
Atletico were 1-0 down at halftime at San Mames, and had looked like a team badly missing suspended top scorer Mario Mandzukic and creator Koke.
But after the break Griezmann, replacing Mandzukic up front to make his first start since October, equalised within 30 seconds with a flying header and later twice ran clear to score as Atletico secured the three points.
The Colchoneros coach told his post-game news conference that the 30 million euro summer arrival from Real Sociedad showed exactly why Atletico fought hard to sign him.
"In the first half he could not find a way to help out the team, but the second half was just the opposite," Simeone said. "He was fabulous. He is a player we need, that we went looking for. We are very happy for him, as we trust a lot in his characteristics. and we need him.
"This will be good for his confidence. It shows his work is paying off for him. He gives us something different."
Simeone admitted that his team had not played well in the first half, when the Basques were the better team and had gone in front through Mikel Rico's early header.
"It was a game which changed a lot," he said. "It was a great first half for Athletic, who played with lots of intensity, and won all the individual duels. It was a bad first half from us, great from them, and they could have won the game. Things were the other way around in the second half, we played excellently.
"We were able to talk about things at halftime, we came out stronger and scored quickly and then spaces started to open up. From there we defended very well. The second half was more for Atletico Madrid."
The home players and fans were outraged by the performance of referee Alejandro Jose Hernandez Hernandez. Atletico's 2-1 goal was a soft penalty converted by Raul Garcia, awarded when Atletico midfielder Tiago went down very easily in the area. Griezmann's third goal also looked clearly offside when the ball fell back into his path just four yards out.
Simeone declined to get into a debate about the officiating, while recalling that the refereeing had not gone his team's way during last week's 1-0 loss at home to Villarreal.
"I do not usually talk about referees," he said. "The other day there was an episode which did not favour us, and I did not talk then either."
Speaking after what was Atletico's last game of a calendar year which brought the club's first La Liga title since 1996, and also a heartbreaking defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final, Simeone thanked his players for their performances and then asked them for more in 2015.
"An enormous 2014 is closed," he said. "Thanks to all the players for the year they have had. And improvement can happen..."
