Barcelona 1 Atletico Madrid 0 | Copa Del Rey First leg.
23:03
Barcelona took a decisive lead in the first leg of Copa Del Rey quarter finals over Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou, thanks to Messi's late goal after a quite frustrating duel between the two sides.
Luis Enrique started with the same line up against Atletico Madrid. Messi played at Right wing, Neymar on the left and Suarez in the center. Busquets, Iniesta and Rakitic trio has been working very well lately.Is it because they don't have to cover fullbacks anymore? Maybe. Also both the fullbacks had a pretty decent match too. They drifted inside often to help us retain the ball. Much of our attack was going on in the left flank except for the last few minutes. Iniesta, Alba and Neymar combined very well on the left side. They created numerous half chances which were easily dealt by Atletico.
Atletico Madrid currently boast one of the strongest defense in Europe along with Chelsea. Although it has to do more with how they play there's no denying that they can frustrate any good team on their day. Simeone set his team to get a scoreless draw in the first leg. Just like any other counter attacking side, they were sitting very deep and were trying to deny the space for Barca.
Since most of the attack started on the left, Messi and Alves had acres of space in the initial minutes. Messi was making runs from the right and the first chance landed to Neymar, who tested their goalkeeper with a brilliant shot from outside the area .
After thirty odd minutes, it was Suarez, who got the best chance of a game to break the deadlock. But he 'Torresed' it. Torres on the other side had a good chance too, but he didn't trust his legs and messed up the pass to Griezmann and fell on the ground.It was 0-0 at HT.
Luis Enrique started with the same line up against Atletico Madrid. Messi played at Right wing, Neymar on the left and Suarez in the center. Busquets, Iniesta and Rakitic trio has been working very well lately.Is it because they don't have to cover fullbacks anymore? Maybe. Also both the fullbacks had a pretty decent match too. They drifted inside often to help us retain the ball. Much of our attack was going on in the left flank except for the last few minutes. Iniesta, Alba and Neymar combined very well on the left side. They created numerous half chances which were easily dealt by Atletico.
Atletico Madrid currently boast one of the strongest defense in Europe along with Chelsea. Although it has to do more with how they play there's no denying that they can frustrate any good team on their day. Simeone set his team to get a scoreless draw in the first leg. Just like any other counter attacking side, they were sitting very deep and were trying to deny the space for Barca.
Since most of the attack started on the left, Messi and Alves had acres of space in the initial minutes. Messi was making runs from the right and the first chance landed to Neymar, who tested their goalkeeper with a brilliant shot from outside the area .
After thirty odd minutes, it was Suarez, who got the best chance of a game to break the deadlock. But he 'Torresed' it. Torres on the other side had a good chance too, but he didn't trust his legs and messed up the pass to Griezmann and fell on the ground.It was 0-0 at HT.
Suarez was awful throughout the game and it was weird that he wasn't substituted in the second half. He was not able to control the ball, hold the ball up or shoot. As the match progressed, frustration grew in Barca camp. Suarez's antics didn't help either. Iniesta, Neymar and Alba started to take things on their own which was quite frustrating to watch. Messi was finally involved in the attack and his two mazy runs created havoc in the Atletico's defense, but we failed to capitalize. The game's decisive moment came when Juanfran fouled Busquets in the area. Messi stepped up to take the penalty, which was saved by Jan Oblak, but the ball fell kindly to Messi who tapped it into the net to give Barcelona, the advantage in the Copa Del Rey Quarterfinals second leg.
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