- Barcelona and Atletico Madrid played 2-2 at Camp Nou last night.
- This is a massive setback for the Spanish champions who are now behind Real Madrid in the standings.
- Lionel Messi scored his 700th goal in this match, but that is of no consolation to the Argentinian maestro.
Atletico Steals Two Points From Barcelona
Diego Simeone’s side didn’t win in Barcelona since 2006, and they continued that trend last night. Still, this draw was a like win for the passionate Argentinian coach who is the only one able to stand up to the leading duo of Spanish football.
In this particular case, they did a favor to the biggest enemies, Real Madrid. With this draw, they slowed down Barcelona, who is now one point behind Los Blancos and also has one game more.
It puts the current Spanish champions in a pretty unpleasant position because nothing depends upon them.
The game itself saw three penalties and one own goal, which suggests that it had a pretty odd flow. The first ones to strike were the host who reached the lead once Atletico’s Diego Costa scored an own goal in the 11th minute.
Yet after just eight minutes, the guests leveled the score. It was a penalty execution by Saul, who fortunately cleared Costa’s another mistake. The striker would miss the penalty before him, but the referee saw Barcelona’s goalkeeper, Ter Stegen, coming out from the goal line and repeated the entire situation. This time, Costa left the ball to Saul, who didn’t have any troubles in hitting the back of the net.
This was the result of the halftime, but as soon as the second one started, we saw another penalty and another goal. Lionel Messi posted his 700th career goal, with the Panenka penalty, to lift his team to a 2-1 lead. But then again, it was another short-breathed joy of the hosts’ fans because Saul used another penalty in the 62nd minute.
Eventually, the game turned out to be a disaster for Blaugrana, who couldn’t breach Atletico’s defense until the end, even though they had the initiative and swing.
Barca’s Dangerous Position
This was the third draw in the previous four games Barcelona played. Sevilla, Celta, and now Atletico all managed to take two points away from Quique Setién’s team.
Setien was under heavy criticism after the match, and rumors about his future, which appeared right after the game against Celta are now getting louder and louder.
“I don’t feel at all under threat,” Setien said afterward when asked about his position.
“It’s a shame,” he said, “we’re having more and more difficulties.”Leaving these points behind means, we’re moving further away from the title.”
Just to remind you that Barca had two points more than Real before the chaos caused by the COVID-19 virus. The current situation might even affect their prospects of winning the Champions League. Barcelona still didn’t secure its place int he quarterfinals, and they have a meeting with Napoli at home, after playing 1-1 in Italy.
