Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has asserted that Manchester United are one of the best teams in the world over the last 14 games and credited interim boss Ralf Rangnick for the turnaround in fortunes. Atletico Madrid host the English giants for a Champions League encounter on Wednesday.

Manchester United started the current campaign in terrible fashion as their poor run of form and dismal results led to the sacking of then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Finishing in a top-four spot in the Premier League seemed a tall task for interim boss Ralf Rangnick but the English giants have undergone a change in fortunes as they currently occupy fourth spot in the Premier League.

The Red Devils will look to finish the season strongly as they split their focus into domestic and European competitions. The Manchester club are unbeaten in their last five games in the league and will undertake an away trip to Spain to face Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the European knockout game on Wednesday. Atletico boss Simeone believes that it is hard to identify weaknesses in this United side and lauded Rangnick for turning them into one of the best teams in the world over the past couple of weeks.

“We’re facing one of the best teams in the world in the last 14 games, if I’m not mistaken. They’ve just lost one. With the new manager, Ralf Rangnick, it’s given the team solidity, teamwork, commitment. We can see what Manchester United was always like. They’ve evolved since the new manager arrived, they’re already fourth in the league. It’s an intense, dynamic team, very brave, with very good forwards, very good footballers overall,” Simeone told Sky Sports.

“It’s going to be a very difficult game, as every Champions League game is. But we have a lot of anticipation to play in our stadium in front of our fans and we’re lucky to play the last 16 at home because we couldn’t play that, we couldn’t do that last year, ” he added.