Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball

He can't keep getting away with this!

Joao Felix and Pena have been great in this game

Missed the last two due to the unfortunate match time and a busy tuesday night. But back again, and its a good match, was one of the best this season for sure (minus the wasted chances at building a solid lead).

Looking at the starting lineup, this is likely the best version of this team right now. Maybe Balde back in on the left and Cancelo on the right, with Christensen/Araujo/Kounde in the middle. But Balde has not been in form for a while now, so Cancelo is rightfully prefered right now on the left.

I have said it multiple times before but I think Kounde as a RB works better than Araujo does offensively. If there is a big threat (Vinicius for example), then sure you can put Araujo there to stiffle it, but Kounde just brings that little bit more offensively.

This was one of Gundo's best matches so far in a Barcelona shirt. He was involved, he was dictating the play, he was bossing the midfield together with Frenkie. He played a lot more from deep and I have been begging for him to do this since basically his first match lol. He got a bit sloppy towards the end, might be because he was getting tired out there, but his first half was excellent.

Which brings me to Frenkie, he is absolutely world class. He elevates every single other midfielder and makes them better. He even made Romeu playable at first by covering his weaknesses. (Up until the opponents realized he is slow and thus a vulnerable point of pressure. Now they legit just rush him whenever he plays and his flaws are being abused out there so he won't likely see many minutes).

He is always available to give the ball when you are under pressure and he can make up for mistakes with his positioning. He is legit everywhere! He is the most important player in the team and crucial to making Xavi's system tick.

Cancelo on left brings a threat on the wings with his penetration dribbling, and his crosses are a lot better than Balde's. Balde has been lacking in a final product for a while now and his dribble penetration has also slowed down (more game time means more time spend analysing his moves by opponents in preparation. He seems to be a bit predictable out there and he likely needs some time to adjust and increase his bag of tricks.)

Raphinha is as industrious as ever, and while he isn't beating his man as reliably as a Yamal does, he connects better with the team and doesn't make many selfish decisions (which Yamal has been getting prone to do lately. He is young though so his decision making will improve.)

Lewa.... I dont know man, maybe its the age catching up to him. He has just been rough this season. He connected a bit better and his touch atleast looked somewhat reliable (in comparison to his amateurish first touch in previous games), but he fluffed at chances quite a bit.

Its looking good that despite Pedri not even being anywhere near his best in my opinion, he looked a lot better than he has been since his return from injury. Imagine if he gets it going again, he already showed glimpses of his ability today.

Tactically I think the strategy was kill their build up play, win the ball high and slow it down. Usually you see in high press that when the pressing team wins the ball they immediately try to hit them back with a decisive pass, but it looked deliberate that whenever Barcelona won the ball back they chose to retain possession and patiently look for a opening instead. This lowers the tempo of the game, which I think better suited Barcelona. They had good movement, immediately highlighting Frenkie Pedri and Gundo here for this part. They poked and prodded at that defence untill they found either a opening or Raphinha/Felix got enough space to do their own thing. Lots of short,quick combinations between them to pull midfielders/defenders out of position.

I think the subs Simeone did helped a lot in countering the game plan laid out by Xavi today, and Xavi didn't really react. He subbed out for fresher legs but same gameplan. I think he was just trying to hold on to the 1-0, let Atleti push up more and then abuse the space left behind by Atleti. (This should have led to the 2-0 a lot earlier, but the biggest example of this is the Fermin/Yamal breakout late in the game that got snuffed with a potential penalty shout.)

Overall though I am quite happy with this match and the way Barcelona played. Yes they had to suffer a bit in the second half, but they should have arguably burried this match in the first half atleast 3-0. The defence withstood the second half test, which was badly needed with how shaky the defence has been this season. I think its a turning point going forward, barring injuries.

how did we only score 1? oh, lewy.

Embarrassing from Atletico, at least now they are 7 points behind.

Ref should consider rope

MATS has competition now

Barce1:0na reign continues

Amazing match by Pena

Can't wait for all Atleti haters to use this first half to go 'See? I told you Simeone was a football terrorist'

What a shitshow of a match. The state of refereeing in LaLiga is just sad.

Wtf is up with lewandowski

Didn't expect a win tbh

Remember when the norm for laliga was 7+ minutes added on?

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ref tried his best to give the game to atletico with those 3 "fouls" at the top of the box. thank god we won. what a game we played.

lewy was god awful tho, and kounde NEEDS to accept that he's our best right back.

Lewandisney 🇵🇱

Should have had 4 goals

Ref absolutely garbage, classic La Liga

I was clenching my ass for the last 15 minutes, the players were looking tired. Not to mention Lewy, I respect him but oh man does it feel like we're playing with ten and a half men.

somehow this game ended without any red card

Holy shit, I have been clenching not because of Atleti, but because of this fking ref.

Insane aggression all game but just couldn’t finish and score. Everyone played insane (Pedri, Peña, João Felix, Kounde, etc.). Joao Felix absolutely does NOT want to return lol. Sign both the Joao’s.

Atleti always open their legs against Barcelona - with transfers and matches

What does a goalie need to do in order to win man of the match? Peña was worth several goals today

João Félix is payback for the Griezmann, David Villa and Suarez scams Atlético pulled on Barça

Barça deserved to win. Atleti have played well, but can’t seem to go into games against Barca with a level head.

I love Riquelme, but he shouldn’t be starting over Lino. If Molina went into the challenge on Felix better then he wouldn’t have scored, but good finish by Felix.

Barça went into the game perfectly and with better finishing, would’ve ran away with the game in the opening 10 minutes. Only Llorente, De Paul, and Lino seemed to want to win.

There should be no reason Atleti lay down and let Barca control the entire first half and then decide to play later in the second half.

Lewandowski had some good moments, he found the right positions but his worldclass finishing skills aren't showing.

Chupem fdps! Atletico de madrid é MERDA!

TYPICAL Atletico... Have their game of the season against Real Madrid, then shit the bed and bend over for Barcelona... Barca had a 2nd choice GK tonight and they didn't even test him until the 80th minute...

Lewandowski should be benched. Less said about his recent performances, the better.

Felix, de jong superb. Kounde, gundogan, pedri good. Raphinha inconsistant. R9 boy oh boy.. He’s so out of form its like robert is playing against us at times trying to force positive play. Its like xavi is determined to play him into good form which his options are pretty sparse in torres/ guiu..

Azpi tried his best to get sent off and failed

1st half was abysmal by us, way too emotional and accumulated too many yellows for no reason. 2nd half we were the better side but just couldn't convert, it is what it is.

Just sucks that we can never get a result away to Barca no matter the circumstance.

Gotta love the fact that Felix decided this game, Simeone and co are definitely crying in the lockerroom atm

Ref was desperate for Atletico to win

Pena the MVP. Insane saves. Showed some real calm and class. Clean sheet. Midfield looked very fluid today. Raphina, Pedri, Gundogan, De Jong, Felix. What a performance from those guys.

Honestly, I cba to watch Lewy anymore. The one game I've seen him get the service that "unlocks" him, and he fluffed chance after chance. Hard to defend his performances, and he really should be benched. Very scrappy last 30 but we came out with a VERY important 3 points.

VISCA BARÇA

Lewandowski, time to learn arabic buddy

PSA: Barca fans remember to give Raphinha his dues. His tireless running is what destabilized this Atleti who plays possession/attacking football, and his presence alone on the line is what pins Atleti's fullback from being more daring. Him and the magnificent Barca midfield seemed like they robbing Atleti like they were taking candies from babies.

I would like to know why Felix wasn't given a penalty

Barca fans crying about biased/poor refereeing is hilarious.

Koundé is a dumbass, commentators said it well, if he doesnt want to play RB maybe he should stop playing so well there and so bad as CB lol. Dude looks like he really enjoys going forward and attacking, I really dont get why he doesnt want to play fullback. Doesnt want to run more?