What is the story about?
Barcelona will finish Matchday 30 with a huge seven-point lead at the top of the La Liga table thanks to a hard-fought 2-1 victory against Atlético Madrid at the Metropolitano on Saturday night. Barça had to come from behind to win a true battle in the Spanish capital even though Atlético had only 10 men throughout the second half, but Robert Lewandowski scored a late winner to give Barça three massive points as the Blaugrana took full advantage of Real Madrid’s loss early in the day and are now
in full control of the title race.
Reactions & Observations
- The opening 45 minutes were a lot of fun for a neutral, with both teams in attack mode and exploring the space in behind both defenses to create huge chances. Antoine Griezmann and Fermín López both missed a couple of big opportunities on either end, and the game was somehow goalless after the first 39 minutes.
- The 40th minute brought a goal from Giuliano Simeone, who timed his run in behind the Barça backline to receive a long pass from Clément Lenglet and fired it past Joan Garcia to put Atleti ahead. Marcus Rashford equalized almost immediately after a glorious one-two with Dani Olmo, and Barça were able to respond right away.
- Atleti then went down to 10 men right before halftime when Nico González took out Lamine Yamal at the edge of the box, and he was initally shown a second yellow card which was changed to a straight red for the denial of a goalscoring opportunity following a VAR review.
- We were all square at the break after a crazy first half, and Barça had a real chance to grab a second half winner playing against 10 men.
- The second half almost started with a disaster for Barça when Gerard Martín was shown a straight red card after a collision with Thiago Almada in midfield, with the replays showing Martín kicking the ball before catching Almada’s ankle. VAR called the referee to the screen and the red card was changed to a yellow, and Barça stayed with 11 men.
- Barça had to deal with two injuries on the night, with Ronald Araujo and Marc Bernal forced off. Bernal had come on for Araujo, but lasted only 20 minutes before having to come off.
- Diego Simeone used all of his substitutions to change the shape to a 5-3-1 and try to preserve the draw, while Hansi Flick sent on Ferran Torres, Robert Lewandowski and Gavi looking to rescue a late winner. Ferran missed at least two really good chances, while Gavi looked fantastic even in a short cameo as Pedri’s double pivot partner.
- But it was Lewy who decided the game as he scored a proper striker’s goal: João Cancelo fired a shot that was saved by Juan Musso, but the ball went straight to Lewandowski who was at the right place at the right time and scored it with his chest on the rebound to give Barça the lead in the 88th minute.
- Atlético had very little time to try and chase a late equalizer, and Barça did a solid job of managing the final minutes and earning a gigantic victory to open up a seven-point gap at the top of the standings.
- This was not pretty, but Atlético away is never pretty. The three points were all that mattered after Real’s loss to Mallorca, and Barça got what they needed. This is a huge result, and it’s the confidence boost they need before the Champions League quarter-finals against this same Atleti side.
