Atletico Madrid 1-1 FC Barcelona: 5 takeaways

#3 Diego Costa breaks goal-scoring duck

Costa's goal put Atletico ahead

After failing to score in the LaLiga for 9 long months, Diego Costa finally broke his goal-scoring drought by heading in against FC Barcelona. While Atleti had a plan about defending the whole game and hitting on the counter they did not make most of it.

The goal they scored was by Costa's not-so venomous header. It should have been a routine save for Marc-Andre Ter Stegen but he was so worried about a header to the ground and was caught off balance. So the goal came off the mistake by the Barcelona #1 rather than a good set piece.

They failed to convert all the other set pieces when they knew Barcelona have a weakness defending against the high balls. When they won possession, they barely completed two passes before someone pinched it. They had a brilliant opportunity from Griezmann's run through the right side but Pique managed to put Diego Costa off.

This is Barcelona's defence at its weakest and a failure to penetrate their wings while the full-backs are wide in the forward areas is a concern. Barcelona would not spare these mistakes usually but Wanda's pitch had its impact too.

These failures at attacking end would not help Atletico in the long run. They better strap up and attack with more intent. As Cruyff said, "You need to shoot in order to score". Atleti had 3 shots on goal in the whole game. They could have had a lot more if they were better on the counter.