Saul Niguez has heaped praise on his team-mates for their work ethic following Atletico Madrid's hard-fought win against Liverpool. 

Atletico's match-winner grabbed the only goal of the game after just four minutes as the Spanish side held out, not even allowing Jurgen Klopp's side a shot on target.

Diego Simeone's side set up defensively to dig out victory, and while the style has come in for some criticism, Saul insists it was only the end result that matters.

'This victory is the result of a lot of hard work and what happens when you never stop believing but keep on going,' Saul is cited as saying by Marca.

'We have kept on working as hard as we can even though nobody believed in us and people wanted to stop us.

'We know that sometimes we play nice and sometimes not, but that doesn't worry us, what worries us is that people see this commitment.

'When you play in the Champions League against a team like Liverpool and in such an environment, everyone has an extra motivation. We all would like our team to compete as it did today and win all the games, but this is not always possible.'