What is the story about?
Barcelona
have a mountain to climb on their quest for a spot in the Champions League semi-finals thanks to a painful 2-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid at Camp Nou in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Wednesday night. After a strong start to the game the Blaugrana went down to 10 men thanks to a Pau Cubarsí red card and conceded twice, and they’ll need to perform a near miracle at the Metropolitano next week to try and overcome the deficit.
Reactions & Observations
- Barça played a very good first half and were at it from the jump, using the ball well, pressing high up the pitch, and matching Atlético’s intensity and physicality. Marcus Rashford was the Blaugrana’s biggest threat and could have easily scored early if not for Juan Musso in the Atleti goal.
- Lamine Yamal had a couple of bad passes early on but eventually got into the action and started creating danger himself, and Barça really deserved a goal that never came. The Catalans were in full control, however, and the first 40 minutes went pretty well for them except for one big chance for Atlético when Julián Alvarez had a one-on-one with Joan Garcia but shot it straight at the Barça keeper.
- Then in the 40th minute, everything changed: Pau Cubarsí fouled Giuliano Simeone when the winger had a potential one-on-one, and the Barça center-back was shown a yellow card that was changed to a straight red for the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity. It was a soft foul but still a foul and DOGSO was in play, so there are no complaints there.
- Things got even worse, however, when Alvarez scored a spectacular free-kick to put Atleti ahead at the break. Barça were a goal and a man down, and had a mountain to climb in the second half.
- There really is no real reason to complain about the Cubarsí sending off, but the fact that Barça were a man down at halftime when Atlético captain Koke was still on the pitch despite committing at least four clear yellow card worthy fouls but only getting one booking was just unacceptable. That seems to be Barça’s luck in Europe, though.
- Hansi Flick took off Pedri (who was on a booking) and Robert Lewadnowski at the break, sending on Gavi and Fermín López to have as much energy and fresh legs as possible with 10 men. Rashford moved up front and missed a huge chance to equalize early, but that turned out to be the only opportunity Barça created in the second half.
- Diego Simeone’s side knew they just needed to manage the game and explore the gaps in behind the Barça defense, and that’s how they found a second goal as Alexander Sorloth scored a nice volley from a cross by Matteo Ruggeri to double the Atleti lead with 20 minutes to go.
- Barça desperately needed a goal to make their job easier in the second leg but couldn’t find it, and the final whistle came to end a painful night in the Catalan capital that had a promising start but ended in depressing fashion.
- This is not nearly as bad a deficit as Barça had against this same Atleti team in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, but the second leg will be in Madrid and Barça wont have Raphinha this time. But this is definitely still not over yet.
