Experiencing the Barca vs Altelico Laliga game - April 6, 2019

Experiencing the FC Barcelona – Atletico Madrid clash live on TV 

(telecast by SonyTen in India)

Preface:

This game was touted as the title decider and had all the elements of a classic clash of two, very different teams whose approach, style and ideology were poles apart.

Moreover, this season, Atletico were out of the Copa del Rey and Champion’s league, which ensured that their players were more rested, compared to FC Barcelona, who were still alive on all three fronts. It meant, too many priorities for Barca and added pressure. The ManUnited coach Ole Solskjær,as part of his preparations for UCL, was in the stands.

Atletico Madrid boasted of one of the most disciplined and meanest defensive units among European clubs and one of the best goalkeepers in Jan Oblak who had been impressive since he joined them. A win at the Camp Nou would cut down the lead to a gettable 5 points which would throw the league race wide open. They had also had Diego Costa coming back after an injury layoff to add to their attacking prowess.

Playing Atletico Madrid is more of a tactical, mind game especially in La Liga because that’s how they do it. They get inside the heads of players, intimidate the opponents - forcing them to react, give extreme reactions to the smallest of fouls and get in the face of the referees. Overall it was never a pleasant experience and there was always the danger of players getting injured due to their physical play.

(Note: The following write up is a reproduction of my experience of watching this live game on TV rather than a regular review. If you are only interested in the review you may please go directly to it at the end of the article.)

In India, this season, select games of the La Liga are broadcast in the Sony Ten & ESPN channels while most are live-streamed officially in Facebook.

SonyTen channel, bizarrely left out a number of Barcelona games and every time they did that, Messi and Co came up with something absolutely phenomenal.For all La Liga games the channel featured a set of Madrid loving commentators who were always quick to point out Barca’s weaknesses and generally gave them less credit, except when Barca did something incredible, which was almost every week.

In any game involving Barcelona, they would always find a way to bring in Real Madrid or Atletico. Whatever the Madrid teams did, these guys justified it by saying that it’s the way they played their game.

So, you can imagine, I had the great privilege of listening to my exasperating friends, along with the usual irritation of watching a team like Atletico and an uncoordinated FC Barcelona.

The match started on even footing with both teams being tentative in attack. Atletico matched Barca, giving them little space, as they successfully crowded out the midfield and attack. For obvious reasons Griezmann was jeered every time he touched the ball. The game progessed and out of nowhere, there was a huge commotion as the the entire Camp Nou was up in arms for something they witnessed. Diego Costa had rammed into an unsuspecting Lenglet who had cleared the ball forward. The idiot left the poor kid flattened on the ground. (My commentator friends were laughing and said that it was Diego Costa’s way of asking Lenglet whether he wanted to play. I badly wanted to flatten the two loudmouths and the nasty Costa.)

In one of the rare counters from Atletico, Costa’s header missed its mark (I am always glad when this character misses). Coutinho had a typical long ranger deflected off the post. Messi, who was mostly static, suddenly came alive and looped a spectacular pass to Jordi Alba whose shot beat Oblak but sadly it was blocked by the post. It was so close yet so far for Barca.

Both teams kept probing, cautiously and both the goalkeepers came up with saves. Oblak was busier of the two as Luis Suarez and Coutinho kept testing him, constantly. There were also some heavy tackles as players tried to stop the attacks.

During one such instance, the referee was warning a few Atletico players when Diego Costa lost his cool and started to abuse the referee. He was almost touching head to head with him and letting out his fury, when the referee could take it no more and showed him a straight Red Card. Atletico were down to 10 men as the protesting Atletico players besieged the referee, earning more yellow cards in the process.

A furious Costa continued his rant despite his team mates trying to separate him from the referee till the big boss Pique came over, pulled Costa away and escorted him out of the ground. (I truly wished Pique had not intervened so that Costa could have ended up doing something even more stupid.) Though stunned, Simeone immediately substituted Rodrigo with the attacking Correa.

But to everyone’s surprise Barcelona did not change their gear. Instead of attacking the 10men Atletico, they were happy to sit back and let the opponent play. As the game headed towards half time, Oblak was forced to save shots by Messi, Suarez (I had lost count of his terrible misses) and Coutinho (who did look more interested in the game than usual) managed to miss an easy header. 

There was nothing much to do for Ter Stegen as an alert Pique and a watchful Lenglet well-aided by Roberto and Alba in the flanks, thwarted the counters of Atletico, adroitly.

Coach Simeone was animated as usual while Valverde looked least disturbed. But he was a bit frustrated as Barca kept missing chance after chance. It was 0-0 at half time (The guys commentating, who I suppose had eyes only for Atletico, were the happiest, going on and on about how great Atletico were and what a master tactician Simeone was. For them Valverde and Barce had lost the plot completely. Barcelona were nowhere near their best and Atletico had every chance to win this. None of their criticism seemed to bother me because I was watching Barca intently.)

A bit of stats from the first half (though I am not a stats person):

Possession - Barcelona 64%,

Barca - 9 attempts on goal,  3 shots on target.

Atletico - 4 attempts on goal , 1 shot on target.

(So much so for the ‘so called’ Barca inaction)

The second half saw Atletico defending deep as Thomas Partey put on an inspired display. Then came another attacking change from Simeone who brought in Morata for Fillipe Luis, intent on getting a win against the laid-back Barcelona. Meanwhile Captain Messi (now fully awake) was making some mesmerizing runs through the Atletico defense. But he was effectively bundled out by 3-4 defenders and a determined Oblak was on hand to block his on-target strikes.

As time went by, Barcelona looked fully on, while Atletico had started to tire a bit. Messi’s pass found Suarez , but the Uruguayan shot straight at the on-rushing Oblak. Messi looked more ominous as he kept trying. Valverde replaced Arthur with Malcom and injected speed into the attacks. Oblak was kept busy by a string of Barcelona attacks.

The game was in its last quarter. It was still anyone’s game as a goal by any team could prove to be winner. Atletico were known to score late goals from set pieces and Barcelona had problems defending them. The game became more physical and cards were shown to several players from both sides. Semedo came in for Barca instead of Roberto,

Jordi Alba, as usual managed to find Luis Suarez on the edge of the box, on the left. Unlike his usual approach, Suarez controlled the ball with an incredible first touch and then, without moving forward much, dispatched the ball with a lovely, low, curving strike that beat Thomas and the diving Oblak to find the net. (Finally he did it in style. By the way, for sometime my commentating friends forgot their favourite team and went ga-ga over the Messi-like goal of LS9. I was listening less and clapping as Luis Suarez removed his shirt and celebrated with his team. In the process he managed to earn his fifth yellow card. He would miss the next La Liga game.and he would not be gloating openly to the press about it.)

Atletico were broken as the players looked dejected. Almost 85 minutes of hard work and constant vigil had come to nothing. But they still had a few minutes to try and salvage a draw. But within the next minute, Rakitic intercepted an Atletico counter and slid an awesome long pass that split the Atletico midfield and found Messi on the right. Messi had timed his run to perfection to avoid the offside trap.

He ran faster with the ball stuck to his legs and sashayed past three defenders. While a desperate Gimenez almost dispossessed him with a sliding tackle, Messi held his nerve and took the ball back. He then wrong-footed Godin and left him on his back. As more defenders tried to rush in, he moved towards the left. A bewildered Oblak stood his ground. Then with a lovely feint he shot it to the empty, right side to make it 2-0. (Whoever said he was just walking around, doing nothing need to re-watch this goal to understand the incredible awareness of Messi, to recognize his true genius. My two friends were saying something about the look on Koke’s face after the 2nd goal which I was least bothered about.)

The Review:

When players are taught to be gritty, they also need to be disciplined and aware of what was at stake. Diego Costa had been pampered to no ends by Atletico and many of the Spanish referees, whenever he crossed the limits. But this time, his unnecessary action cost his team heavily.

Simeone’s attacking changes had very less effect on the game. None of the Atletico players who came in made much of an impact. 

Instead of coming out battered and bruised (which was the norm in such clashes), they came off with a win without breaking a sweat. Atletico may have been impressive, but Barcelona came away with a very strategic and well-earned win that did not require them to be at their best.   

The Pluses: 

The brilliant and determined Pique had been the pillar for Barcelona at the back and he had been at his best in all the big games. Lenglet had ably supported Pique and had grown in stature as a stubborn wall. Ter Stegen had been consistently good this season. 

Luis Suarez looked a shadow of his original self. But the guy's a real work horse who just never gave up and his goals had been very crucial for his team. His fantastic goal was one of the best La Liga goals of this season. When he leaves Barcelona he would leave a huge void.

Beware of a static Messi because he could spring to life any moment in a game and he did exactly that with that wonderful run and sleek finish that killed off the game.

Yes, Atletico fought well till the end. They did everything they could to defend, but rarely threatened in attack. But Barcelona did not press hard for a reason. Backed by their wonderful defenders, most of the key players avoided unnecessary heavy tackles and they were much superior when it came to aggression. But that doesn't meant there were no problems.

The minuses:

There were huge concerns for Valverde in the midfield and the wings. Busquets, Rakitic and Arthur were way off their best and their presence was totally lacking in the game. While Arthur and Rakitic did try, the listless Busquets was becoming a liability as he gave away too many balls in key areas piling up more pressure on the defenders. 

Due to lackluster midfield, the two wingers were forced to defend full time than creating attacks. Jordi Alba had been found wanting as he was totally outpaced a number of times while trying to defend. Sadly for him Coutinho was not much of a help in defense. 

Alba, Rakitic and Busquets were over worked the entire season without any rest and its now showing in their performances. Valverde needs to preserve these players and bring in the likes of Malcom, Dembele (only if fully fit), Alena, Semedo, Boateng, Vidal and more of La Masia players in La La Liga games to prevent these key players from getting even more worn out.  Barcelona need to look for effective alternatives for Alba, because there was no one to replace him. 

Arthur seemed to fade away in the 2nd half as he looked out of sorts. If a player is unable to finish 90 minutes of playing time at such an young age - it is a very big problem in the making for both the player and the team. 

The consistent brilliance of Messi, Saurez (occasionally), Pique, Lenglet and Ter Stegen had effectively concealed all the weaknesses that lie underneath. But these players are bound to have their quiet days as well - that's when the shortcomings of the team and Valverde's lack of rotation could cost FC Barcelona. It would be totally unfair to the players who had put in their everything this season.