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MADRID: Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone is keeping his cool despite his team’s disastrous start in their bid to end a five-year LaLiga title drought, with the under-fire coach hoping to strengthen his squad before Monday’s transfer deadline.

Atletico are in 14th place after managing one point from their opening two LaLiga matches — a 2-1 loss at Espanyol and a disappointing 1-1 home draw against promoted Elche.

Simeone’s side now face the tricky task of visiting ninth-placed Alaves on Saturday, with their Basque opponents buoyed by three points from last week’s victory over Levante.

When asked at Friday’s press conference about his team’s struggles, Simeone remained philosophical.

“It’s always difficult to give scores to the work being done with so many new people,” he said, referring to the arrival of the likes of Thiago Almada, Johnny Cardoso, David Hancko and Alex Baena in the close season.

“The team has worked well in these matches, with areas for improvement, especially defensively,” added the Argentine, who acknowledged the pressure but insisted on staying calm.

“Anything less than picking up points is not positive, especially in our position,” Simeone said.

“We have to focus on improvements, on continuing to build on what went well and, above all, on staying calm. In difficult times, we have to face them calmly in order to play the game the way we want to.”

Simeone added that Atletico remain active in the transfer market with just days remaining before the window shuts.

“As always at the end of the transfer window, we are keeping an eye on everything until the last day,” he said.

“I’m completely open at this stage to someone coming in or leaving, always with tension and talking daily with the board to finalize the squad as we need to.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s clash, Simeone praised Alaves.

“They have a strong pace and they are very strong on their home turf. They have played two good matches, their coach (fellow Argentine Eduardo Coudet) has very clear ideas, and we hope to take the match where we believe we can do damage.”

MONACO: Fiorentina’s quest to win the Conference League enters a fourth straight season with opponents including Mainz and Dynamo Kyiv from the draw ceremony on Friday.

The Italian club were top ranked in the 36-team draw after being twice a beaten finalist — against West Ham and Olympiakos in back-to-back years — and losing in the semifinals last season.

Fiorentina’s slate of six opponents through mid-December was completed by Rapid Vienna, AEK Athens, Sigma Olomouc and Lausanne. UEFA aims to confirm the fixture schedule by Sunday.

Crystal Palace make their European debut only reluctantly in the third-tier Conference League after a complex legal fight with UEFA.

The English FA Cup winner were demoted by UEFA from the Europa League for a breach of rules limiting investors having a significant stake in multiple clubs who qualify for the same competition. Lyon, majority owned by American businessman John Textor, stayed in the Europa League instead of Palace.

Palace get home games against Alkmaar, KuPS Kuopio of Finland and AEK Larnaca from Cyprus. Palace will go to Poland to play Dynamo Kyiv and also visit Strasbourg and Ireland’s Shelbourne.

Four clubs from Poland were in the draw, while Dynamo also has been playing games there — in Lublin — while Ukraine is unable to stage European games during the Russian military invasion.

Rapid Vienna will make two trips to Poland to play at Lech Poznan and Rakow Czestochowa.

Shakhtar Donetsk are having a rare season outside the Champions League, and will have trips to Ireland, Malta and Scotland to play Shamrock Rovers, Hamrun Spartans and Aberdeen.

Hamrun Spartans are the first club from Malta to qualify for the main phase of a European competition and also will host Switzerland’s Lausanne and Gibraltar’s Lincoln Red Imps.

Political football

UEFA kept Lincoln separate in the draw from Rayo Vallecano because of political tensions between Gibraltar and Spain. Drita of Kosovo were kept apart from Zrinjski Mostar of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

All the Polish teams, also including Legia Warsaw and Jagiellonia, were kept apart in the draw and cannot play each other until the knockout stage next year.

Format and prize money

Conference League teams play six different opponents and are ranked in a single-standings format.

The top eight teams go directly to the round of 16 in March. Teams placed ninth to 24th advance to the knockout playoffs in February. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.

The Conference League has 285 million euros ($333 million) in UEFA prize money with each club getting a starting fee of 3.17 million euros ($3.7 million).