On Sunday evening, the Camp Nou saw La Liga’s 21st match-week clash between Spanish giants Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid. Getting knocked out of Champions League at the group stage, dropping into the Europa League and trailing eternal rivals Real Madrid in La Liga by 15 points with a game at hand, it seems like Barcelona’s only goal for the remainder of the season is to prove to themselves that they are able to perform at a level the club’s history demands.
Having a pretty busy winter transfer window, recently-appointed club legend Xavi Hernandez appeared to have a lot to figure out. Barcelona secured the long-awaited arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the €55 million signing of Ferran Torres, a second chance for academy graduate Adama Traoré on loan and reacquisition of 38 year-old club legend Dani Alves. All participated in this game, with Xavi’s success at injecting the newly arrived talent into Barcelona’s gameplan determining the game’s score.
He made three changes to the line-up that beat Alaves before the international break, Luuk de Jong and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli left their duties to winter transfer newcomers Torres and Traoré while Sergiño Dest made way for the veteran Alves. Diego Simeone made only one change to the side that beat Valencia, as Renan Lodi dropped to the bench for Stevan Savic’s services.
Having conceded at least two goals in their last five games, Simeone decided to play a determined set defence in a 4-5-1 shape against Barcelona’s possession dominant style.
Forced to handle Sergio Busquets, Frenkie De Jong, Pedri Gonzalez and Gavi’s narrow positioning, along with Alves tucking inside, Atlético’s five-man midfield defensive line worked well. With João Félix acting as a left midfielder when defending, Atleti had enough to control both the wider and narrower attacking options of Barcelona. Providing the width with winger Traoré and wing back Jordi Alba, both heavily criticised this season due to their performances, Barcelona couldn’t expose the flanks of the Atlético defence because of both Félix and Mario Hermoso applying pressure on Traoré, while Yannick Carrasco and Sime Vrsaljko did the same to Alba. Also crowding the central area, Simeone managed to limit the central actions of Barcelona’s passing-fueled offence thanks to Koke and Rodrigo De Paul and the intense pressing of Thomas Lemar.
Aiming to catch Barcelona on the break after defending in a low block, Simeone’s plan once again came to fruition when Koke released Luis Suarez behind Barcelona’s defence after an intercepted pass; Suarez crossed low to Carrasco, who fired the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen in the eighth minute.
Going a goal up, Simeone decided to change the defensive structure of his team by pushing Félix up near Suarez to form a 4-4-2. This resulted in a decrease in Félix’s involvement both defensively and in the build-up as he was caught up higher up the pitch dealing with the Barcelona backline. Just two minutes later, Barcelona overran the left flank of Atlético, the exact area Félix had just left, with Alves given the space to cross, finding the overlapping, unmarked Alba, who scored a worldie, finding the top right corner with his left-footed half volley.
After the Barcelona equaliser, Atlético continued to submit to Barcelona’s control, sitting back in a low block and looking for counter attacks. In the 20th minute, Félix took the ball from a 30-yard pass from Carrasco and shot from edge of the box just to see it go wide.
Against the low block defence of Atleti though, the dominance of Barcelona was certain. With Alves playing narrower, almost like a central midfielder both in the build up and set offence of Barcelona, Traoré was able to stretch the narrow Atlético backline, isolating Hermoso, who lacked the physical qualities to deal with the returning La Masia graduate. Just one minute after Felix’s unsuccessful attempt, Traoré took on Hermoso down the right side of the box and then crossed to the far post, where the shortest player on the pitch, Gavi, headed the ball over Vrsaljko and scored. Despite having zero assists in the Premier League this season in his 20 appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Traoré assisted a goal within twenty minutes of his return to Barcelona.
Atlético kept having chances though, which Félix still couldn’t capitalise upon, mishitting a clear chance straight into hands of Ter Stegen from eight yards. Barcelona’s control of the wide areas of the pitch almost produced another goal when Jordi Alba cut back for Pedri in the 25th minute – the young Spaniard sending the ball above the goal.
Both teams dropped their intensity of play, while Barcelona continued to have significantly more of the ball. Lemar provided a cross after a short Atlético corner, where José Maria Giménez put it just wide with his header at the near post.
Seven minutes later, Dani Alves crossed well from a free-kick. Gerard Piqué’s resulting header hit the crossbar, but the spills of that shot was tapped in by Ronald Araujo after Ferran Torres’ failed bicycle kick attempt. Thanks to the Uruguayan’s third goal in La Liga this season, the Barcelona players walked to the dressing rooms with a two goal advantage.
The second half started with Simeone giving new arrival Daniel Wass his debut at right back, taking out Vrsaljko. Both teams made no tactical changes though. Barcelona’s pressure continued, resulting in another goal from La Blaugrana just four minutes later. Gavi played a one-two with De Jong and found the space to cross low, with the ball passing through Barça players until it reached the edge of the box, where the narrowly-positioned Alves was waiting to drill the ball hard and low into Atlético’s net.
Three minutes later the first booking of the game came when Alba tripped Félix to stop an Atlético counter. Simeone decided that his introduction of Wass was not enough, the Dane struggling to play as a wing back, so he made a triple substitution in the 55th minute, taking out Félix, Lemar and the struggling Hermoso for the services of Angel Correa, Matheus Cunha and, the first Mozambican to play in La Liga, Reinildo Mandava.
Fresh legs nearly did the trick for Atleti when a free kick won in Barcelona’s half almost found its way to Barcelona’s goal from the foot of Carrasco, who was denied brilliantly by Ter Stegen at the far post. But Barcelona couldn’t stop the inevitable, conceding from the resulting corner. De Paul headed the corner down to Suarez, who was at the right place, as always, to cut Barcelona’s lead back down to two with a simple header.
After the goal, Xavi made his first intervention into the game, taking off the brilliant re-debutant Traoré for the services of another debutant, Aubameyang. This saw Torres, who had been in the centre for most of the game, occupying the right flank, allowing Aubameyang to run in behind the tired Atleti defence. Another change followed in the 66th minute, where youngster Nico Gonzalez was introduced at the expense of Pedri.
A minute later, Alves cut short his brilliant performance by making a horrific tackle on Carrasco and receiving a straight red card. With Barca left with ten men on the pitch, Xavi immediately took off Gavi in order to introduce Sergiño Dest.
Although the dismissal of Alves didn’t change Xavi’s plans drastically, he was forced to make changes, defending in a low block in a 4-4-1 shape, again allowing Aubameyang to stay higher up the pitch and make forward, line-penetrating runs when the ball was won.
The72nd minute brought only the third booking of the game, when De Jong was punished for his offences on Correa, earning a yellow card.
Four minutes later Simeone made his finalthrow of the dice to fight back again ten-man Barcelona, removing the fatigued Koke to introduce another pair of fresh legs, Hector Herrera. The Argentinian failed however, as Barcelona were able to defend and see out the game, with no significant actions other than a few bookings for both teams for the remainder of the match.
Heavily criticised throughout the season, Alba rightfully took the Man of the Match award, thanks in part to Alves’ red card.
Barcelona are trying to recover from a fall that they were not expecting. Poor performances on the pitch and financial instability, both fuelled by the other, resulted in the club changing its current structure and believing in a new, fresh movement at the hands of the club legend Xavi Hernandez, who seems to have injected belief into everyone related to the club. With Barcelona showing their best of this season, La Blaugrana may return to their glory days in the long-awaited Xavi era.
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