Atletico Madrid Must Return from Brink of Disaster After Collapse in Barcelona
CAMP NOU, BARCELONA — Atletico Madrid's week has been catastrophic. Being knocked out of the Copa del Rey in the quarter-finals by Celta Vigo on Wednesday was bad enough, but now they are three points adrift of Barcelona in the title race while the leaders have one game in hand.
However, Diego Simeone left the Catalan capital a proud man, with his team dominating Barcelona for large periods of their 2-1 defeat despite being reduced to nine men.
Filipe Luis and Diego Godin's red cards bordered on suicide, unadulterated self-destruction, but still the visitors created chances and threatened to take something from the Camp Nou.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
However, pride alone has never been enough to win a trophy, and unless their team deals with various problems, some short-term and some longer, this will end up a crushingly disappointing season for Atletico fans.
One immediate problem is the defence, which is not something you can often say about Atletico. Their next game is against Eibar in La Liga on Saturday, a side with two impressive strikers in Sergi Enrich and Borja Baston.
The latter Atletico know all about given he is on loan from them at the Basque Country side, though he is allowed to play against his parent club. Eibar have scored more goals than Atletico in the league this season.
Simeone's problem is his usual defence is in smithereens. Filipe Luis will be suspended after his horrendous tackle on Lionel Messi during the Barca clash, which could see him ruled out for three or more matches.
The Brazilian had committed three fouls already in the first half, but none were as mindless or dangerous as the confrontation that saw him receive his marching orders just before half-time.
In a 50-50, Messi beat him to the ball and the defender lunged late but also obscenely high, knocking the Argentinian to the turf brutally.
The incident occurred in front of both managers, and their reactions told a story. Luis Enrique exploded in rage, shouting at the fourth official, gesticulating wildly. Simeone, meanwhile, already knew the red card was coming. He was thinking about what to do next.
What he wasn't expecting was Godin to join Filipe Luis in the changing room midway through the second half.
Filipe Luis' expulsion came after Messi had equalised the early strike from Koke, created after good work by Saul Niguez down the Atletico left.
Messi's drilled leveller was wonderful too, coming after a gorgeous feint by Neymar and Jordi Alba's incisive cutback.
Atletico dominated the first 25 minutes, but Barcelona equalised after 30 and began to take control. Suarez sent the hosts ahead with a brilliantly taken goal in the 39th minute, squeezing home from a tight angle.
Then came the Brazilian's red card, seemingly ending the game then and there. But to their credit, and as Simeone noted afterward, Atletico refused to give up on their philosophy. And it worked.
Largely powered by the outstanding Yannick Carrasco, they began to fight back and pen Barcelona in their area.
Carrasco ripped down the left flank, taking the ball past several players, and only the imperious Gerard Pique stopped him from getting a sight of Claudio Bravo's goal.
Then he cut Barcelona open again, this time on the right, curling in a cross Antoine Griezmann forced toward goal. It took an outstanding save by the Chilean goalkeeper to deny the Frenchman from point-blank range.
But then Godin lost his head after some fine footwork by Luis Suarez. The defender, usually a wise head, flew in and sent his compatriot flying through the air.
Out came Undiano Mallenco's red card, following the yellow, Godin's second, and Atletico were down to nine. With a little over 25 minutes left, the game was truly gone. What's more, it means Godin will be suspended for the Eibar game too.
And you can add to that Juanfran. The right-back was booked and has been ruled out of that game on account of Saturday's being his fifth yellow card of the season.
That means only Jose Gimenez will be available from Atletico's first-choice defence in their next league match.
Guilherme Siqueira, Stefan Savic and Jesus Gamez will likely have to step in, although the former of those has been linked with a move away to Newcastle United by Sky Sports, which could leave them even shorter.
That is the main short-term issue, but Simeone will also be upset his defence, which has been so solid this season, shipped five goals in one week.
Messi's first-half strike ended a 483-minute run without conceding a goal for Slovenian stopper Jan Oblak, after Miguel Angel Moya had let in three against Celta Vigo in the week.
Atletico have only let in 10 goals all season in La Liga, but Barcelona are responsible for 40 per cent of those.
Arguably, this result ends the title race for Atletico, with Simeone admitting afterward that Barcelona rarely let something slip.
Per Sport, he noted: "Barcelona keep going very strongly. They took three points from us and have a game in hand. There's a long way to go, but we will see. They don't often mess up."
And even though he was pleased with his players' performances, insisting he felt "proud" of the team he picked, the reality is chances of the title are slim.
Atletico still have to travel to local rivals Real Madrid for the second Madrid derby of the season, which Barcelona will see as a chance to put breathing space between themselves and their two main championship contenders.
With Copa del Rey elimination too, perhaps Atleti's best hope for success is the Champions League.
They have been drawn against Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in the last 16, which is a winnable tie, and we should see them in the quarter-finals.
There were a few things Simeone could be pleased with during the game, including Carrasco’s virtuoso second-half showing and Saul’s fine overall display.
The job now will be to make sure the squad is perfectly primed and ready to compete in Europe while still trying to keep pace at the top of the table, waiting for any Barcelona slip-ups.
Although Barcelona have gone an impressive 26 matches without defeat, their form has not been overly impressive; there have been several draws.
Given their failure to reinforce in the January transfer window, thus far at least, Simeone will believe his men have a chance if they keep grinding out wins in their upcoming matches.
Although they played well against Barcelona despite shooting themselves in the foot with their red cards and some poor defending for Suarez’s goal, they failed to take anything home.
That has become a frequent problem against Barcelona, particularly under Luis Enrique’s stewardship, and Simeone needs to find a way to crack the Catalans given they could meet in the Champions League’s latter stages.
There is still gold for Cholo and company to discover this season, but the crucial thing is making sure things don’t continue to implode from here.
