Alvaro Garcia Merencio gave the hosts a 30th minute and Cacereno were leading until three late goals from Clement Lenglet, Julian Alvarez and an own goal saw Atletico home in the final ten minutes.
Afterwards, Simeone was congratulatory to Cacereno afterwards.
Hard-fought victory and anger:
"The match was as it turned out, a nice Cup match, with an opponent who did a great job in defence, with a good counterattack on the goal that put them ahead and a controlled match, with goal-scoring opportunities and little forcefulness. When one has little forcefulness, there is a risk of being left out, as happened to us. We have to improve in that part, we need to strengthen the team at the end of the play because the most important thing in this game is to score goals and defend well."
Team attitude:
"Let's start from the premise that it was not right of me, I did not behave as I should have for the position I have, but it worked out for me. Faced with another dangerous situation not resolved in the best way, a little bottle appeared that unfortunately was not on the right path."
Positive aspects:
"Many good things, the people who came on in the second half interpreted the game very well and it was not easy because it was complicated. I think Rodrigo's game was very good, I liked the attitude he had throughout the game in terms of play, personality and assuming the place he has within the team. It is something that will strengthen us. Lenglet again gave us a very good solution in the aerial game and the entry of Conor and Barrios allowed us to continue attacking. Conor was not a defensive change, it was to strengthen Rodrigo, Llorente brought him up more to look for a counterattack... And it went well, thank God."
Cacereño:
"The same thing happened to us against Vic. These games aren't easy, we've had strong teams like Villarreal, Espanyol and Girona. It's not easy, the teams have to work hard and it was evident in defending together and as a team. A goal comes and enthusiasm appears. The end of the game is approaching and it's not easy to sustain it until the end, because we generated throughout the game. Luckily, it could have gone our way."
Le Normand:
"Don't worry, we are very happy that he is back with the team, it is normal to have some time to recover after so much time away, he will be back to his best level, we expect it and we need it."
Riquelme's position changes and triple substitution:
"I was looking to have more players in the middle like Rodrigo and Lino, who improved. Riquelme had an important one and Lino had one inside that was stopped by the goalkeeper. In the second half Marcos gave us more depth than Cesar and in the second half Lenglet gave us a more natural way to get the ball out and Julián has a huge hierarchy and we needed that."