Atletico Madrid 1-0 Barcelona: The Colchoneros’ fighting spirit prevails

Posted by: neydmin Posted date: April 09, 2014 In: Neymar news | comment : 1

Full-time: Atletico Madrid 1-0 Barcelona
Goals: Koke (6′)
Match date: April 9, 2014
Stadium: Vicente Calderón
Competition: UEFA Champions League
Barcelona line-up: Pinto, Jordi Alba, Mascherano, Bartra, Daniel Alves, Busquets, Xavi, Fabregas, Iniesta, Neymar, Lionel Messi.

Atletico Madrid advanced to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, after beating Barcelona in the second leg of the quarter-finals by 1-0. The only goal in the game was scored in the 6th minute, but it was enough for the hosts to held on until the final whistle and celebrate an historic qualification.

We were still inside the first 5 minutes of the game when the hosts managed to break the deadlock. A long kick from Courtois initiated a dangerous attack and with only one header they got to put Adrián in a 1-on-1 situation against Pinto. The Spaniard striker hit the woodwork with a powerful right-foot strike, but Atletico didn’t give up on the ball and David Villa insisted with another cross into the far post. His pass went straight to Adrián, who this time preferred to assist a teammate and allowed Koke to tap it in into an empty net. 1-0 to Atletico and half of the job had just been done in less than 5 minutes into the game.

Looking at the full game stats, we can easily see that Barcelona had a lot more ball possession than Atletico Madrid (70% vs 30%), but the truth is that the Colchoneros have always been the side who has been closer to score. Diego Simeone‘s men hit the woodwork in 3 different occasions, while Barcelona seemed to lack inspiration in their front men, especially Lionel Messi and in some extent also Neymar.

Barça will now have to focus on La Liga and the Copa del Rey, and after this weekend’s fixture against Granada, the Blaugrana will already have to face Real Madrid for the Cup final.

Sources: fcbarcelona.com