Atlético Madrid – Barcelona: Simeone’s Sorrows Deepen (0-1)

During his 13 years in the dugout, Diego Simeone’s sole mission at Atlético Madrid has been the unseating of the Spanish elite. He has come closer to achieving this task this campaign, but just as the business end of the season starts to unfold, it looks like his attempts will be in vain.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

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An epic 4-4 draw in Catalonia confirmed a close struggle for Spanish supremacy. A little over a month has passed since the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final with twists and turns aplenty.

Atlético Madrid might be about to suffer another season of sorrow. The team took reigning champions Real Madrid to the wire in the Champions League, bowing out to their rivals in a penalty shootout. To make matters worse, a pair of LaLiga losses on either side of the second leg of the Round of 16 tie, as well as a 1-1 draw away at Espanyol, have cut the club nine points adrift from the summit in the table.

One of those defeats was the forerunner to this fixture. Barcelona built more momentum in the bid for trophies with a 4-2 victory at the Riyadh Metropolitano. Four goals in the second half highlighted the firepower that Hansi Flick had forged with this squad. His outfit brushed beyond Benfica to go into the Champions League quarter-final and sit top in LaLiga. Would their dream of a treble stay alive?

Flick fielded seven members of the lineup from a 4-1 triumph over Girona. Pau Cubarsí suffered an ankle injury with Spain in a 2-2 draw against the Dutch. Ronald Araújo has been the partner to Iñigo Martínez in the middle of the back four, but the 18-year-old was fit to play. Eric García gave way to Frenkie de Jong in the middle of the park. Raphinha, rested on the weekend, replaced Gavi on the left wing. Robert Lewandowski netted a brace in that game, but Ferran Torres took his place as the striker.

Diego Simeone switched five players from his last lineup. Juan Musso came in for Jan Oblak as the cup goalkeeper. Jose Giménez gained a spot from Clément Lenglet in central defense of a rearguard including Reinildo. Samuel Lino and Conor Gallagher dropped to the bench. Marcos Llorente moved into midfield with Rodrigo de Paul, joining Pablo Barrios and Giuliano Simeone. Alexander Sørloth stepped out of the front two, and Julián Alvarez acted as the spearhead next to Antoine Griezmann.

Atlético attempt to force the issue

Atlético attacked the opening to the first leg efficiently, scoring twice inside six minutes. They saw less of the ball in this clash but still approached their opponents with a direct approach on the flanks.

4th minute: offensive sequence from Atlético Madrid. Long balls from Musso were more successful on the left side of the field. Here, Jules Koundé cleared the first punt, but Reinildo was ready to squeeze space for Fermín and the ball dropped to Barrios. He connected to de Paul, Griezmann dropped off the last line and Alvarez released the channel, opening space for a deep ball to set away Llorente.

Giuliano Simeone swapped to the left wing, Llorente moved linearly on the right, and Griezmann stayed in a much more central position closer to Alvarez. There was less presence between the lines to try and connect and elongate passing sequences, but the hosts would fight for second balls and took their chances to thrust forward on the outside. However, the expected pattern soon took hold.

Barcelona break free from the shackles

Barcelona had the bigger share of the ball but needed time to smooth out their sequences. The wall of red and white shirts was on high alert if Raphinha asked for the ball: César Azpilicueta might have got a red card for a foul on the winger, and several attacks broke down over vertical passes into his feet.

But this team does an excellent job of platforming the skills of its best players. The first alarm bells went off when the Catalans cut open the center with Raphinha running deep and Pedri playing the role of conductor. Twice, Torres took the ball in the penalty area, but he could not apply the killer touch. Not long later, their teenage sensation started to work his magic from the other side of the pitch.

19th minute: offensive sequence from Barcelona. The visitors switch sides, flattening the midfield with movement from Fermín and the underlapping Koundé. Martínez was then able to dribble forwards and punched a pass to Torres, who linked off the front with Pedri. Raphinha ran onto the last line as well as Fermín and Torres, but Pedri did not try to break the lines immediately. Instead, he took time, pivoted away from the retreating Barrios as he turned to his right and then picked out Raphinha.

Lamine Yamal threaded the eye of the needle to help break the deadlock. As the ball arrived at the right winger, Le Normand shuffled closer to Fermín, who was on the inside of de Paul. The tiniest gap opened between Reinildo and the central defender; yet, Yamal had no hesitation picking the lock. Torres took off into the right channel with one of his classic sprints, steering the ball beyond Musso.

Yamal continued to thrive. Only minutes later, he received a pass from de Jong to take charge of a transition. He shifted inside Reinildo and slipped through the coverage of Barrios before feeding a through ball for Pedri. His teammate tried to return the favor with a flick, but the attack ran aground; Raphinha and Yamal both failed to convert the rebound, but the flow did not bode well for Atlético.

Simeone’s switches stifled

Simeone required a reaction and introduced two new players for the start of the second half. Sørloth swapped in for his son as the striker, so Alvarez split to the left, and Griezmann was on the right of the frontline. At the other end of the field, Javi Galán and Lenglet sat on the left of the defense.

Sørloth, who had scored in all his previous five fixtures against the Catalans, added to the presence on the last line. Twice, he was marginally offside as he set up Griezmann to test Wojciech Szczęsny, before burying the ball into the net following a flick-on from Alvarez. Closest of all was an effort early in the second half that narrowly missed the target as he latched onto a through ball from de Paul.

67th minute: offensive sequence from Atlético Madrid. Llorente drives off the line diagonally to go around Raphinha as Atlético escaped the press increasingly. He fed the ball to de Paul and ran ahead of Pedri to get between the lines as Sørloth stretches the pitch vertically and Griezmann goes into the pocket. However, the final step was missing as Balde shuffled inwards to tackle Llorente successfully.

However, the response was limited. Griezmann struggled to get into the game and Rodrigo Riquelme replaced him in a final roll of the dice. The guests also kept threatening to score a second goal. Yamal, with his ingenious dribbling, and the running speed of Raphinha could not be completely contained.

Close to the hour mark, Flick turned to the bench and began to influence the affair from the dugout. Cubarsí came off for Araújo, García sat at the base of the midfield, and de Jong moved forward to play next to Pedri as one of the central midfielders. Barcelona did not regain a lot of control, but the manager was able to turn the tide more effectively once Lewandowski came on for Torres as the central forward. For the final phase, Raphinha rotated to the right in place of Yamal, Álex Balde advanced on the left wing, and Gerard Martín moved in as left back, holding onto the advantage.

Takeaways

Atlético appear to be running out of steam at the wrong time. The team has now suffered four defeats since the start of March and are now out of the Copa del Rey as well as the Champions League. An almighty collapse from the top two would have to occur to restore their stake in the title race and Simeone is staring at a fourth straight year with no silverware. The squad has taken a step forward this season, but it is back to the drawing board to try and usurp the traditional powers of Spanish football.

For Barcelona, it is onward and upward in their objectives. The Catalans can look forward to a Copa del Rey final at the end of this month against Real Madrid, whom they have thrashed 9-2 on aggregate across their two meetings this campaign. El Clásico always carries high stakes, and this eternal rivalry is rearing its head as the biggest hurdle between Blaugrana and the treble. But Flick, who is familiar with this feat, knows what that will take and he has built a unit with every chance of making history.

Match plots will be added as soon as possible.