Barcelona came away with a draw in a hard-fought match between the two La Liga title rivals. Here are 3 things we learned from this match.
Iniesta’s Quality
Last night, Andrés Iniesta proved that he still fits into the Barcelona team perfectly. His first half performance was brilliant due to his smart decision-making which was topped off with a brilliant assist. Barcelona’s build-up play was spearheaded by Iniesta with his range of passing and natural ability to beat a man being vital when Atlético were pressing high up the pitch. Defensively he was great as well though because he was effectively breaking up Atlético’s attacks with his interceptions and tracking back of runners.
His second half wasn’t quite as good, but he was still a comfortable presence when on the ball. Barcelona as a team lost control of the match for large periods in that half due to the injuries to Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi which disrupted the structure of the team, but Iniesta could do little to change that due to the organised nature of Atlético under Diego Simeone. Nonetheless, Iniesta proved that he is more than deserving of the first team place he currently inhabits.
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Messi’s Importance
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This match showed that Barcelona still have a reliance on Messi which is just as much psychological as physical. Messi was at the heart of everything good in Barcelona’s play with him creating multiple chances for himself and others. His injury in the second half was a massive blow to the team. The effect could be seen off the pitch because the stadium went in to hushed silence for quite a while with the “Messi” chants when he went off being the only significant amount of sound to break this up.
His injury affected the events on the pitch as well because not coincidentally Atlético equalised straight after this. It took Barça a while to reassert control of the match afterwards which up until the injury they had been in complete control of. Therefore the two injuries were the major turning points for the match. Busquets provided the reliable foil for the rest of the team to work off, and Messi was the creative genius. Without these two Barcelona struggle due to them both being part of the spine of the team. Thankfully the Argentinian is only out for three weeks with the international break taking up a chunk of that time. The fact that Busquets trained today suggests his substitution was more precautionary than anything else which is great news if true.
Photo by Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images.
Mistakes
This was a match that was decided by mistakes due to the two teams following their game plans perfectly. The tactics in the game plans caused a stalemate to develop between the teams due to the contrast of styles: organized defensive discipline versus free-flowing attacking football.
The first goal was an unusual source for Barcelona because it was a header from Ivan Rakitić which flew into the corner of the net. However, Kévin Gameiro didn’t close Iniesta down quick enough which allowed him to cross and Gabi didn’t pick up Rakitić therefore allowing him the free header. It’s unlike to have defensive mistakes, but without them Rakitić wouldn’t have scored.
Similar to this, Atlético’s goal was allowed to happen due to Barcelona mistakes defensively. In the build-up to the goal Gerard Piqué was pulled out of position by Fernando Torres who preceded to nutmeg him. The ball went through the Ángel Correa who was able to get a free shot away from the edge of the box due to the covering defender, Javier Mascherano, slipping at the key moment. Therefore both goals were attackers from both teams taking advantage of mistakes from the opposition defenders.
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