5 Players who stood out in the Barça-Atleti clash

FC Barcelona came out on top against Atletico Madrid in this vital title-deciding clash at the final stages of this season’s La Liga. Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi scored on the 85th and 86th minutes respectively, which helped the Blaugrana seal a 2-0 victory over Atleti. The win helped Barça extend their lead at the top of the table to 11 points over second-placed Atletico Madrid, and are 13 points clear of Real Madrid, who are currently sitting third on the table.

For the first half an hour the game was evenly poised, wherein both the teams were engaged in free-flowing football. Barcelona made the first move with Jordi Alba getting at the end of a Lionel Messi-long ball, only to be denied by the crossbar on the 14th minute.

Circumstances tilted toward Barça’s favour when Diego Costa received a straight red. But Atleti held on and fought with 10 men, until Luis Suarez broke the deadlock after collecting a pass from Alba, and went for a curving shot at the far right corner from outside the box, beating goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

A minute later, Messi extended the lead to 2-0 with a clever finish. Barça fought hard for the win but Atleti were most impressive for the major part of the game, playing only with 10 men, due to some resilient defending. But it was the brilliance of two individual players which stood as the difference between the two teams. Here is a look at five players who stood out in the match.

#5 José María Giménez

At the heart of Atletico Madrid’s defence was Giménez, who stood like a wall to prevent Barça from making inroads into Atleti’s defence line. He was also a problem for Barça’s backline on setpiece situations by heading two attempts after winning both the aerials. Giménez was also quick in cutting out the crosses and successfully clearing the ball away from the danger zone – he had 4 interceptions and 5 clearances to his name. He was rigid in one-on-one situations with a total of 6 tackles and 2 blocked shots, keeping Barcelona quiet for a good amount of duration.

#4 Koke

After being down to 10 men, Atleti were seen defending for the rest of the game. Koke played an integral role in slowing down the Barça midfield and caused problems in the middle of the park, with a total of 7 tackles and 2 interceptions. With whatever offensive play Atleti had to offer, Koke was essential there as well. He had a total of 76 touches, a passing accuracy of 81 per cent and made three key passes, which is the highest by any Atletico Madrid player in yesterday’s game.

#3 Sergio Busquets

Yet again, Busquets proved how instrumental he is to Barça’s midfield. Along with Arthur, he was able to withstand the pressure applied by Atleti in the midfield. Busquets was at the top of his game in controlling the rhythm of the match, with an astonishing passing accuracy of 94.1% and provided 7 accurate long balls. He won a total of 3 aerials, which is the second highest of the match after Diego Godin’s 4. Defensively, he was extremely clinical, making 4 tackles, 3 interceptions and blocking one shot.

#2 Jan Oblak

According to OptaJose, Jan Oblak has saved 81 of 100 shots (81%) on target faced in La Liga this season, which is the best percentage for a goalkeeper in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Oblak was the reason why Barcelona was unable to score until the 85th minute and was one of the best performers on the pitch.

He was Atleti’s best player, with a total of 8 saves compared to Ter Stegen’s one. One of his best saves came against Coutinho on the 28th minute when the Brazilian got the better of Godin and had only Oblak to beat. But Oblak was quick to provide a big right hand in preventing Coutinho’s low drive go in. Once again, he stopped Suarez from scoring on the 62nd minute, when all he had to do was drive the shot in at the near post.

#1 Lionel Messi

Well, there was no doubt about this. Even with a relatively quieter game by his own standards, Messi was still the best player on the pitch, zigzagging through Atletico Madrid’s defence. Out of the 21 shots that Barça took, Messi alone accounted for 8 of them. 5 out of those 8 were on target. In addition to that, he provided 3 key passes and completed 6 successful dribbles. If all this wasn’t enough, he scored the final goal of the game which came from a counter attack with Messi collecting the ball on the Barça half, dribbling past two defenders, taking on Diego Godin and cleverly going for the near post, leaving Oblak completely immobile and clueless.