Atletico Madrid expose fatal flaw in Barcelona to reach Champions League semi-finals

Atletico Madrid expose fatal flaw in Barcelona to reach Champions League semi-finals

Atletico Madrid 1-2 Barcelona (3-2 on agg.)

Atletico Madrid secured passage to the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in nine years, thanks to a goal from Ademola Lookman. Hansi Flick’s Barcelona could not stop the bleeding against a lethal Atletico.

The game started off in aggressively frantic fashion, with both sides immediately going for the throat. The opening minute saw Lamine Yamal test Juan Musso with a shot, saved well, before Atletico Madrid burst up the other end, Julian Alvarez causing problems. Every player seemed to be sprinting at all times, and with Lamine Yamal missing his first press four minutes in, Clement Lenglet did not bank on his second effort. Blocking the Frenchman’s pass, Ferran Torres returned the ball to the teenager one-on-one, who was coolness personified, slotting past Musso for an early lead.

That did not settle things. Gavi was forced into two crucial interventions on the edge of his box shortly after, and Ademola Lookman, who started off the sharpest of any Atletico player, sliced an effort wide. Before the 10-minute mark, Dani Olmo was sent clear by Lamine Yamal again, but Musso, after an initial slip, got a hand to halt the Barcelona onslaught.

Finally, both sides agreed to lower the absurd pace of the game, looking for longer spells of possession. It appeared as if the hosts were starting to get to grips with the game, and Antoine Griezmann fashioned the first real chance of the game for Los Colchoneros. Spreading the ball wide left to Lookman, he beat Jules Kounde on the outside, before connecting with Griezmann at the near-post. The Frenchman under serious pressure couldn’t turn it in. If there was one major problem for Atletico, it was the centre of the pitch. Koke Ressurreccion and Marcos Llorente were outnumbered by Gavi, Pedri and Olmo, the latter two were finding the front three in space.

It was from there the second Barcelona goal came from, with Olmo slipping it to the feet of Ferran Torres. he worked a yard on the outside of Robin Le Normand, and from a tight angle, picked out the top corner. At this point, after 26 minutes, Atletico were rocking. Another giveaway in their own half allowed Lamine Yamal to pick out Fermin Lopez with a customary trivela pass, and the header was only kept out by a second sensational save of the game from Musso.

The response came five minutes later. Nahuel Molina found Griezmann on the turn, and the Frenchman released Marcos Llorente in behind. His pass was inch-perfect for Lookman to raid in from the flank, and finish past Joan Garcia, putting Atletico back in front. Not only did the fans crank up the noise, the Atletico players seemed to speed up a step.

It was in the 42nd minute that Diego Simeone was celebrating a foul won by Lookman in his own half, a sign of just how tense the game had become in the final 10 minutes before the half, with the game precariously perched on a knife-edge. Barcelona continued to create half-openings, but Atletico were now getting to grips with them a little more, managing the half-challenges to throw off a pass or a run at the crucial moment.

Both sides knew that the next goal could go some way to deciding the tie. Barcelona’s wild celebrations gave away to perhaps the loudest cheer of the night when Torres’ second was ruled out for offside ten minutes into the second period. Lookman had curled another effort wide, but it heightened the sense of pressure for Barcelona, playing mostly in the Atletico half at this point.

The first period was played almost without breath, but the second felt far more deliberate, as both sides laboured through spells of pressure. Lamine Yamal’s footwork was the primary source of speed in the game, and after dribbling his way out of a manhole for a second time, Olmo ballooned an increasingly rare sight of goal over the bar. Hansi Flick sent on Robert Lewandowski and Marcus Rashford as it looked like Atletico had decided to sit in and protect their lead, but Griezmann had other ideas. The Frenchman took charge of getting his side up the field, and it resulted in two dangerous balls across the box from Julian Alvarez and Llorente. Moments later, long throw caused havoc in the Barcelona box, and only a point-blank save from Joan Garcia kept Barcelona in it.

Atletico could smell the semi-final though, and blood was in the air. Alexander Sorloth had only been on the pitch for three minutes when Eric Garcia brought him down, and after a VAR review, was sent off. What had undone Barcelona in the first leg, undid them again. If the Flick system has brought the Blaugrana back to the summit of Spanish football, has a fatal flaw in Europe.

In the final minutes, Barcelona did their best to throw what was left of them at Atletico, but by this point, the Metropolitano was roaring their side over the finish line, with every clearance, tackle and wayward Barcelona pass. Perhaps the player that might not be the focus of the songs was Musso, who found two crucial saves in the first half when it looked like Barcelona might melt the Atletico resistance, he proved unbreakable.

Cholo Simeone, serenaded at the final whistle, proved that he had the plan to unpick a seemingly swarming Barcelona side. If the Catalan side spent much of the 180 minutes pursuing the Atletico goal, the lacerations that Atletico carved through Flick’s side proved too deep and too serious for Barcelona to stop the bleeding. Atletico Madrid await one of Arsenal or Sporting CP, while Barcelona are left with existential questions about their philosophy once again.