[ad_1]
“Barcelona” and “Real” have been playing draws in the Spanish Championship for several years. However, even under such conditions, none of the representatives of the “second wave” could seize the opportunity and hold on to the championship. For example, Atlético is always among the contenders, but in important matches, the “cushion” often lacks determination.
More precisely, there was not enough, we are talking about this season separately, but we are not moving forward. Barça and Real Madrid continue to slide while Atlético shows historical results. Maybe the time has come? Historic because a 24-game unbeaten streak in La Liga is unprecedented in the club’s history. The restructuring that Diego Simeone launched last year seems to have been left behind. Therefore, today’s game had to answer the question: are Madrid finally ready for something great?
The duel entourage whetted the appetite. Here is Messi’s 800th match with Barça, here another attempt by Simeone to beat Barça in La Liga (until today it was not possible to do so), here is the sign of Griezmann’s fight against the former team. The only pity is that Suárez did not play. He promised to give all his strength in the field and, on occasion, look for those who hurt him and his friends (for the decision to take the Uruguayan through the door of the Camp Nou). But the coronavirus intervened.
However, even without Suárez there was someone to play soccer. It may not have been the brightest game, but it’s definitely not Atlético’s fault. Compared to the sample of several past games against the giants, Madrid played very actively and aggressively. Barça underperformed. During the first half, the Catalans scored just two shots, and even then Messi attacked from a rather desperate acute angle. Atlético looked sharper: here and in Saúl Niguez’s goal, here and testing the strength of Diego Llorente’s crossbar, here, in fact, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco’s goal.
Atlético at the end of the half came out of the pressure of Barça and launched a quick counterattack. Correa found a free zone on the left flank with a long pass and sent Carrasco there. The Belgian was oriented and was not lost in the fight against Ter Stegen, who went well beyond the penalty area and aggressively “made up” the entrance. An easy maneuver from Carrasco – and ter Stegen is already on the pitch without the ball as indicated. The Belgian had to get into the empty net from afar, which he coped with.
In the second half, Diego Simeone had the opportunity to play his favorite football and succumbed to this temptation. The defense did not remain deaf, but the Madrid team, evidently, ran towards the middle of the other people’s field with the same emotion as before. The “Barça” were also encouraged: Langle could score twice, but Oblak played well. The drunkard fired inaccurately from a distance, and Messi constantly plunged into the depths of the field, from where he searched for teammates with transfers. However, to no avail.
Atlético could have scored the second goal if active Felix had reached the top pass. However, this was secondary. The main thing for Diego Simeone is to defend himself during those minutes in which Barça put a lot of force into the attack. We did it. Sergi Roberto’s shot was sharp, but inaccurate, Brightwhite did not hold on to the balls after entering the field, and Messi, except for a free kick, did not remember anything.
1-0 – Atlético’s historic victory. For the first time in La Liga, Diego Simeone takes charge of Barça. Madrid continued their unbeaten streak in the championship to 24 games. He ruined Messi’s anniversary, he avenged Suárez.
And they made an application for the championship. Or is it too early to talk about it?
Madrid. Stadium: “Wanda Metropolitano”
Athletic – Barcelona 1: 0
Objective: Yannick Ferreira Carrasco 45 + 3
Athletic: Jan Oblak, Marcos Llorente (Diego Costa 73), João Felix (Tom Lemar 84), Angel Correa (Geoffrey Kondogbia 84), Stefan Savic, Saul Niguez, Jose Maria Jimenez, Coque, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (Augusto) Felipe 90 + 1 Mario Beautiful, Kieran Trippier
“Barcelona”: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Gerard Piqué (Serginho Dest 62), Clement Langley, Miralem Pjanic (Martin Brightwhite 83), Lionel Messi, Usman Dembele, Pedri (Philippe Coutinho 57), Antoine Griezmann (Trinkao 83), Jordi Alba, Fran Yong , Sergi Roberto
Warnings: Coque 9, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco 26, Stefan Savic 79, Jose Maria Jimenez 80
