Diego Simeone’s first win in Barcelona as an Atletico Madrid manager was, inevitably, dramatic.
An injury-time goal from Alexander Sorloth decided the 2-1 win on a night Barca had plenty of reasons to be frustrated.
A magnificent goal by Pedri opened the scoring for the Catalans, who were the better team for most of the game but failed to secure the advantage on multiple occasions.
Robert Lewandowski will try to forget last night after a glaring missed chance in the second half. Fermin Lopez, Raphinha and Pedri also missed big opportunities. Rodrigo De Paul then equalised in the second half and the visitors capitalised on Barcelona’s carelessness in extra-time to seal the win with a perfect counter-attack.
Here, we analyse the main talking points of the game…
Where does this leave the title race?
This is a very tough pill to swallow for Barca.
Atletico are three points ahead of them in La Liga — and will start 2025 top of the table — with a game in hand. Real Madrid can also go ahead of them if they beat Sevilla today and will also have an extra game to play.
Two months ago, Barca outplayed Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu to go six points clear at the top of the table. Now they have only won once in seven La Liga games, with some uninspiring performances that have left head coach Hansi Flick with concerns.
3 – #Barcelona 🔵🔴 have lost each of their last three home games in @LaLigaEn. It’s their worst run in the competition after two other three-game losing streaks in 1965 and 1987. Breakdown. pic.twitter.com/3UPBkB0WvI
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) December 21, 2024
Last night was not one of the substandard displays, however, it was one of their best games of the season, showing Barca is a team with a soul, well-connected to the ideals of their coach and with enough talent to believe they can achieve big things. Barca fans can still believe the title race is far from over.
“I know that we played fantastic in the first three months, but in the end we lost too many points”, said Flick. “But I still think we are in a good position. I am not too worried about not being top of the table”
The Madrid teams have the advantage though. Atletico thrived in one of their best survival performances in recent years — and it was partly thanks to their depth.
Two substitutes — Nahuel Molina and Alexander Sorloth — created the winning goal, and the contributions of Koke, Robin Le Normand and Axel Witsel were key to resist Barca’s attempts.
Simeone has reasons to believe this can be one of those years for them. Now it’s time to prove it.
Pol Ballus
Pedri’s wasted masterclass
It is difficult to explain how Barcelona lost the game with such a dominant display from Pedri.
The 22-year-old was the star in Montjuic by some distance. He scored an outstanding goal, gliding his way through three Atletico players before finding Gavi to combine. A return allowed Pedri to beat Jan Oblak at the far corner.
Superb goal by Pedri! 🔵🔴
The Barcelona midfielder plays a one-two with Gavi before scoring the opener 🙌 pic.twitter.com/wyKS7H5Zcf
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) December 21, 2024
His performance was compelling proof of his endless creating powers. Atletico could not get anywhere near the youth-team graduate, who created three big chances that Fermin Lopez and Raphinha, twice, failed to convert. He had 95 touches, registered 89 per cent passing accuracy, completed four key passes and had three shots — more than anyone in the game.
Pedri is back at the peak of his powers. Five months ago some fans would have considered selling the Spain international after three seasons struggling with injuries — but he is rejuvenated since Flick arrived.
Deco deserves a big share of the credit too. The sporting director led the revamping of the backroom staff, with a whole new team of physical and fitness trainers headed by former Chelsea physiotherapist Julio Tous.
“He is very professional,” said Flick in his press conference about the man of the match. “He is training well, takes care of his body, and always does extra treatments with the physios. It is good to see him now at this level, seeing him play was fantastic and the goal was unbelievable”.
“When you see him on the pitch, he is now making his team-mates better. I think that’s the next step of his career”.
Pol Ballus
Atletico’s equaliser: Barcelona go from the sublime to the ridiculous
Despite shifting Conor Gallagher to a more central role in the second half, Atletico were still struggling to find ways to hurt the hosts — until two minutes of madness brought them level.
In the 58th minute, Pedri played a delightful pass over the top of Atletico’s defence to find Raphinha bearing down on goal. Oblak came off his line, which led to the Barcelona captain lobbing the ball. A game with limited interruptions to that point stood still as the stadium took a collective deep breath, only for the ball to cannon back off the bar before Robert Lewandowski followed it up by slamming a volley into the side of Axel Witsel’s head.
Witsel then received treatment before the game restarted, with Oblak launching the ball forward. Atletico kept possession and played it back, finding Javi Galan on the left. His pass was closed down by Jules Kounde and went back towards Raphinha, but Clement Lenglet collected it and passed forward under pressure.
It went to Gavi, who chose to head it into the turf rather than chest it down, an avoidable error. Antoine Griezmann intercepted and passed the ball to Rodrigo De Paul.
De Paul then released Julian Alvarez down the left with Kounde too advanced and Pau Cubarsi struggling to keep up. Alvarez got close to the box before cutting the ball back where Barcelona made a second avoidable error. Marc Casado chose to go with a backheeled clearance as the ball was behind him — had he not done so, the ball looked destined to reach Gavi. Instead, the underhit clearance went straight to De Paul, who curled it in to draw Atletico level.
Less than 120 seconds after going close to making it 2-0, Barcelona found themselves pegged back at 1-1 with 30 minutes to go.
They might have been able to get away with it, but a problem that has bothered them lately, and did so earlier in this game, reared its ugly head once again…
By Ananth
Barcelona rue wasted opportunities…
Barcelona are La Liga’s leading scorers with 51 goals from 19 matches, 14 more than Real Madrid and 18 more than Atletico. Even on a barren run of league form, they have failed to score only twice.
The overwhelming concern, though, is their inability to finish chances. In their last seven league matches, Barcelona have an expected goals (xG, the number of goals a team is expected to score based on the quality of chances created) of 17.0 but scored only 11 times, in comparison to scoring 40 times from 30.8 xG in their first 12 league matches.
Some of it can be put down to the team returning to a more sustainable rate of scoring, but the chances missed against Atletico (and Leganes last weekend) suggest there is a deeper issue.
The first clear chance came in the 25th minute when Gavi put an open header wide from Raphinha’s cross.
Pedri then opened the scoring before Fermin Lopez missed a chance early in the second half to make it 2-0, scuffing his shot as Oblak saved.
The next presentable opportunity was Raphinha’s lob discussed above, but the best of the lot fell to Lewandowski in the 76th minute. A clipped pass from Raphinha found substitute Ferran Torres, who squared the ball back to an open Lewandowski — a move the 36-year-old has finished time and again this season and over the course of a goal-laden career.
Somehow, Lewandowski, who has scored just twice in seven league games, contrived to miss the ball almost completely as Oblak gathered.
Oblak had two more telling contributions, saving first from Raphinha in the 87th minute after another fantastic Pedri pass…
… before adding another save a minute later from the Spaniard after he was set up by Dani Olmo.
Hansi Flick’s Barcelona are a young team whose high-risk approach requires an incredible amount of precision. They will always be susceptible to moments of quality — a well-timed run, a fantastic save — but some of their errors over the past few weeks have exacerbated the impact of the moments beyond their control.
The winter break could not have come at a better time — this team sorely needs rest and a reset.
Anantaajith Raghuraman
Are Barcelona too young?
Flick wanted to make a point about his team in the build-up to the match.
“We lost five experienced players from last season”, he said. “Dani Olmo and Pau Victor arrived, and the rest of the team is honestly very young. They are doing really well and have improved a lot. In the end, we are not happy about our recent form, but we have to fight. This is what I can say.”
This was also a supportive point from the German coach after some of the disappointing performances in recent weeks, such as the draws conceded against Celta de Vigo and Real Betis.
Last night, Barcelona’s starting line-up had an average age of 24.5 years, and Lamine Yamal was not even there. Atletico’s was 27.5. Both goals the Catalans conceded had plenty of arguably youthful mistakes (see above).
This is part of the learning process for the likes of Casado, Cubarsi or even Inaki Pena, who had not been put in such a constant high-pressure environment before.
After the game, Flick decided to protect his players, praise their great performance and highlight how happy he is to manage this young squad.
“The mood in the dressing room was not great, but I told the players I am so proud about how we played,” he said. “It was fantastic, but we need to be more intelligent and learn from that”.
“In the end, what I can tell you is that I am so happy to manage these players. They are young, but they are a unit that works really hard and wants to do something big. Every day when I drive to training at 6.30am in the morning, I feel I am so happy to be in charge of them. A pleasure”.
Pol Ballus
