Atlético de Madrid beats Barcelona and takes the lead in La Liga
Diego Simeone’s side claim 12th consecutive win as Barca suffer third home defeat in a row
Summary
Atlético de Madrid are the new leaders of the Spanish Championship. Cold in executing their strategy, coach Diego Simeone’s team withstood the relentless pressure from Barcelona from the start, even conceding a goal in the first half, scored by Pedri, but managed to equalize with their first real chance, scored by Rodrigo de Paul at the start of the second half. True to their tactics, Atlético once again closed up in defense, with a great performance from goalkeeper Jan Oblak and, in the 50th minute, took advantage of a rare counterattack to secure a 2-1 comeback victory, with a goal by Norwegian Alexander Sörloth.
LEADERSHIP AND END OF WRITING
Facing Barcelona away from home has always been a thorn in Diego Simeone’s side. Since taking charge in 2011, the Argentine coach took 13 years to finally secure his first win at his rival’s ground. And what a win! Sörloth’s goal secured Atlético’s 12th consecutive win and secured them sole leadership of La Liga, with 41 points. Barcelona, who lost their third consecutive home loss, ended up paying for the countless missed chances at the end of the game and dropped to second place, with 38 points, with the risk of being overtaken by Real Madrid (37) this Sunday.
BARCELONA DOMINATES THE FIRST HALF
Looking to attack from the start of the game, Barcelona managed to keep Atlético de Madrid at bay, creating several chances until they opened the scoring in the 29th minute: Pedri exchanged passes with Gavi, received the ball in the box and shot across goal, leaving goalkeeper Oblak with no chance. Only then did the visiting team take a few risks in attack, but Barça’s defense did not allow any dangerous chances on Iñaki Peña’s goal until half-time.
MISTAKES ARE COSTLY
Barcelona played a great match. Until it was time to turn their absolute dominance into goals. The second half was a festival of wasted chances: Fermín López was stopped by Oblak after just two minutes; Raphinha received two perfect passes from Pedri, hit the crossbar with the first and was stopped by Oblak with the second; Pedri was also blocked by the Slovenian goalkeeper; and even Lewandowski disappointed, failing to finish on goal the successive crosses he received, some in the penalty area. The defensive errors ended up determining the defeat: De Paul took advantage of a backheel cut by Casadó to equalize, and in injury time Atlético scored the decisive goal after a misplaced pass by Raphinha in attack.
