Atlético 1-0 Barcelona: Carrasco’s only goal

Being in the center of the table, Barcelona need a push against Atlético to improve their position. Not losing to this rival in La Liga for the past 10 years has helped Barcelona gain confidence, although Atlético are in good shape.

However, Barcelona caused great disappointment by showing a lack of performance. The rise of the blaugrana was easy to stop while Messi did not have the opportunity to show himself in front of the Atlético player.

Atlético showed in the acute phase ball and at the end of the first half, Carrasco had a finish ready to defeat Stegen. This is the only goal of the match and Atlético still won 3 points at home despite the absence of Luis Suárez.

This important victory helped Atlético climb to second place in the La Liga standings with 20 points / 8 games, equal to the Sociedad but poor in difference. Barcelona fell to 10th place with only 11 points / 8 matches.

Coach Koeman launched the strongest team with Dembélé, Griezmann, Messi in attack and De Jong as the driver in midfield. On the Atlético side, the task of scoring was given to Carrasco, Joao Félix and Ángel Correa.

With good morale and home advantage, Atlético are fully active after the kickoff. Barcelona, ​​with the presence of Messi, also made Atlético’s defenders doubt and not dare to get up.

Barcelona was the team that had the first dangerous chance when in minute 3, Dembélé had a very quick exit from the right and then let Griezmann run at point blank range, but the ball went over the crossbar. .

Soon after, Atlético gradually recovered their position. At 5 minutes, Saúl Niguez shot quickly from outside the area behind Carrasco’s return line. Luckily for Barcelona, ​​goalkeeper Ter Stegen made an excellent save.

9 minutes later, Llorente made Barça’s goal tremble when the ball hit the crossbar to leave in penalty. Barcelona’s defenders lacked concentration and were surprised by Atlético’s excitement.

In the following minutes, the game was balanced. The two teams are still trying to create the ball towards each other’s goal, but have failed to score. It seemed that the first half would end with a 0-0 draw, then Atlético showed sharpness in injury time.

From the situation of losing the ball in the middle of the field of Pjanic, Agel Correa passed a long pass to Carrasco, the goalkeeper Ter Stegen rushed too early and was overtaken by the Belgian before scoring a simple goal to empty goal, opening the scoring . 1-0 for Atlético.

In the second half, Barça accelerated the game and Atlético played an active defense. In minutes 56 and 57, midfielder Lenglet had a chance to equalize for Barça, but his two consecutive headers could not beat Oblak.

Although Griezmann is very active in the move, he hardly has many opportunities to finish off and coordinate with Messi, Dembélé or Pedri. Barcelona also suffered heavy losses when midfielder Piqué left the field injured.

Ronald Koeman put Braithwaite and Trincao on the pitch in turn, hoping they can make a difference for the home team. Messi also played hard, but was quite alone in teamwork with his teammates.

Faced with the solid and orderly play of Atlético, Barcelona did not create any more significant opportunities towards Oblak’s goal and had to leave the Metropolitan empty-handed.

Team

Atletico Madrid: Oblak, Trippier, Savic, Gimenez, Hermoso, Koke, Saul, Llorente (Costa 73), Carrasco (Felipe 90 + 1), Felix (Lemar 84), Correa (Kondogbia 84)

Goal: Carrasco 45 + 3

Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Piqué (Dest 62), Lenglet, Alba, Pjanic (Braithwaite 83), De Jong, Pedri (Coutinho 57), Dembélé, Griezmann (Trincao 83), Messi

Thuy Linh