In the first Champions League clash since the passing of Johan Cruyff, it was the Dutch master’s former club Barcelona who came away with a 2-1 first-leg quarter-final victory over Atletico Madrid thanks to a well-taken brace from Luis Suarez.
Diego Simeone’s visitors played the majority of the tie with just 10 men after goalscorer Fernando Torres was sent off following two bookable offences, and although Los Colchoneros struck first, they wound up chasing the game at the Camp Nou.
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Luis Enrique’s Barca took their time to find the back of the net but they will feel happy enough to have come away with the win after having been shut out for so long. Now, let’s examine just how the Catalan side managed to extend their win streak over Atleti to seven games for the first time.
Ten-men of Atleti border on top defensive display
Obviously, the visitors wouldn’t have wanted to see one of their best players shown a red card at such a key stage so early in the match, but it sort of forced their hand to an extent.
With 11 players on the pitch, they looked rather dangerous in attack and were able to fashion a few chances through Antoine Griezmann as well as driving forward with purpose thanks to Yannick Ferreira Carrasco.
Out of necessity they had to sit back once, the red card was brandished by referee Felix Brych, overcrowd the final 20-25 yards and look to frustrate a normally fluid Barcelona attack. In the end, it didn’t work but they certainly made life difficult for the Blaugrana for extended periods.
Normally operating with a high press where possible, they weren’t allowed to use that tactic minus Torres and that really hampered their ability to keep their opponents at bay, as well as they, could have.
What’s more, without a focal point at the opposite end of the pitch they couldn’t pull Barca's defence out of shape. On the flipside, they were able to overpopulate the one area the home side normally thrive in – the 18-yard box.
With little space to manoeuvre around, Enrique’s team had to try and find little pockets of space, and they were left vexed for a long time.
An industrious effort at the back consisted of some determined closing out of the space, a willingness to get up in the faces of Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic.
Time and again, they rushed out from deep to screen the passes and they weren’t afraid to get stuck in with some clattering challenges either. It worked for large periods of the game and, combined with a cynicism that involved time-wasting, it allowed them to stay ahead until the 63rd minute.
Overall, it wasn’t the result they had gunned for, but considering the position they were in for the final hour of the match, they should be proud of their defensive efforts.
Barca show supreme resilience
To put it bluntly, they didn’t look comfortable when the sides were level throughout the opening 35 minutes and the signs were there that this was going to be a really closely contested affair.
An air of tension hung over the Camp Nou long before the complexion of the tie changed with the sending off and when one considers just how off-colour they were in El Clasico, it is natural to entertain thoughts that the reigning UCL champions might be going through a bit of a trough right now.
We’ll never know how the clash might have panned out had Torres’ temper not got the better of him but a close look at the period when both teams had equal numbers on the pitch suggested that this could potentially have turned out to be Atletico’s night.
Unable to move the ball through midfield the way they wanted to, the hosts were hassled at every potential opportunity by the likes of Gabi, and his work-rate spread like wildfire throughout the team as numerous efforts were made to make Barca as uneasy as possible on the ball.
If Barca are normally an HD stream on a 3D curved television, for the opening half hour on Tuesday their connection came through a boxy old telly and the connection was choppy and interrupted far too often The culprits? Atleti’s niggling play and nuisance interceptions.
As pointed out by Barca’s own Twitter account, the match details told their own story of how much they dominated the encounter, but it could have been a very different story:
Much like the way Barca played against Arsenal in their last-16 continental clashes, this was far from a vintage performance and the faithful culés were forced to suffer as they waited anxiously for one of their superstars to rattle the back of the net. Time and again, they came close to breaking the deadlock with 21 attempts.
Neymar rattled the crossbar in the second half after Lionel Messi had almost conjured something majestic in the 49th minute with a bicycle kick to come oh so close to getting his 500th senior goal. If Atleti’s goal was living a charmed life, the normally magic Messi didn’t seem to have a counter-curse.
Nevertheless, their tireless work-rate, albeit against 10 men, underlined just how much they wanted the win. Recovering loose balls, re-launching attacks and playing with unrelenting energy, they refused to give up – a mentality they’ll need to keep handy for the tricky return leg at the Calderon.
Catalan wide brilliance proves decisive
In contrast to so many of their matches, Barca really had to work very hard to find gaps and space. As already mentioned, this was down to Los Rojiblancos’ work-rate.
Creating a seemingly impenetrable barrier in front of Jan Oblak’s goal, Diego Godin and company were as organised as could be. Drifting with the movement of the ball, they kept tabs on the intricacies of play with unshakeable determination.
Alas for the travelling contingent, however, the apparently immovable object was eventually dislodged from its stubborn grip as Suarez struck twice to further his case as arguably the best no.9 in the game right now.
It wasn’t simply brazen bulldozing that earned the two goals, though, because Barca were intelligently spreading the play wide in an effort to stretch the condensed cover.
Continually, they looked for Jordi Alba on the left flank or Dani Alves on the right and it paid dividends in the end as it was Alves’ cross to Alba that caused the panic inside Atleti’s area for his side’s opening goal.
Indeed, it was the 32-year-old Brazilian right back who again proved the catalyst to set up his Uruguayan team-mate following a sublime one-two for what proved to be the winner in the 74th minute.
Some will say the reigning champions were lucky to claw their way back into contention overall, but it’s almost impossible to argue a convincing case against Torres’ dismissal and the two goals they scored were the result of clever movement of the ball to tire their opponents and hit them with clinical finishing.
Following their slump against Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid, they needed to bounce back with a win and they’ve done that. All eyes on the second leg now. Can Barca make it eight wins on the trot against Atletico?
