Barça does a survival exercise against Atlético to consolidate its lead (0-1)

Framework dembele and Barça disappeared. Like a small team, they took the lead on the scoreboard and began to defend that loot that acquired the value of a treasure, quantifiable in the three-point lead over Madrid, the only rival, Atlético already off the hook that, for one day, he was subjected to the procedure with which his rivals are usually executed.

He could not with a Barça that curdled a survival exercise very clear Excellent in the appearance of him, with a Pedri who sewed a play which Dembélé culminated, he took a step back from having obtained that advantage and limited himself to defending it with great agony, being a team that does not know how to play without the ball. He lost it lots of times, received more shots than ever, but left with a clean sheet.

The background prevailed over the forms in a Barça that showed signs of concern in a field where the usual thing is to suffer. He came out unscathed from an agonizing night, something that will strengthen the team just as if an exhibition had taken place because he knew how to live in a manifest inferiority during a large part of the match, although there was a phase in the second half in which could have prevented final anxieties.

It was when he had more of the ball again, starting with Pedri. Guided by previous experience against Atlético, Xavi repeated the idea with which he nailed Simeone 4-2 at the Camp Nou. He traced the device a year later with a false end. Last night it was Pedri completing the line with Dembélé and Ansu Fati; then it was Gavi who accompanied Adama and Ferran.

bit extreme

I had never played Pedri de extreme and played little in the Metropolitan. He tended to accompany De Jong on the inside and he left the band for Balde. That was where the coaches’ strategy was cooked, since crying, which was inside, became the fifth local defender. Freed from servitudes, Pedri was located in the famous square surrounded by rivals, without anyone taking care of him. They let him receive balls and draw runs in a dangerous area to commit fouls. They gave him a bad defensive assignment and only against Oblak got disoriented

Concerned about the laziness of the team in the areas, Xavi shielded his own at the cost of clearing the others. Although he spent his life in the first half in the red-and-white midfield. Pushing away Atlético, or any rival, is always the best formula to defend yourself. Simeone’s team is not overwhelmed at all when they lock him up; on the contrary, it would be said that pleases him. It is what he has been doing for ten years with that coach.

pressure to all

The Atlético did not play anything. He proposed nothing, tried nothing until he was behind on the scoreboard. So he did take a step forward, pressing on the markings. To the azulgranas and to the one he submitted to the referee, claiming everything, inviting the fans to participate in a very complex undertaking.

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But affordable. Barça’s signs of weakness are common, not sporadic. They grow proportionally as their possession rate drops, and it is when the presence of a leader who assumes command is missed. Without that unifying element, he backed down until, indeed, he needed that armor with Xavi’s favorite defenders. Among which is even Balde, angry because his back was caught twice. He also got caught to Koundé, in the band with Dembélé and with whom they seemed to speak different languages ​​after a month playing the same with France.

Going through the break did not stop the drift of the match. Everyone kept looking at Ter Stegen more than Ansu to ensure possession because nobody wanted the ball: neither the forwards, intimidated by the snorts from Savic, Giménez and company, nor the midfielders, who were fleeing from any risk. Barça changed with the substitutions that gave oxygen to a team suffocated, but that he reached the shore alive.

ATHLETIC 0 – BARCELONA 1

Athletic: Oblak (5); Molina (6), Savic (5), Gimenez (6), Reinildo (4); Llorente (5), Koke (5), Barrios (4), Carrasco (6); Griezmann (7), Joao Felix (5).

Coach: Diego Simeone (5).

Substitutions: Kondogbia (5) for Barrios (m. 65); Morata (5) by Carrasco (m. 65); Correa (4) by Koke (m. 73); Lemar (4) by Joao Félix (d. 73); Reguilón (sc) by Reinildo (d. 82).

Barcelona: Ter Stegen (7); Koundé (5), Araujo (6), Christensen (6), Balde (5); Gavi (6), Busquets (5), De Jong (4); Dembélé (7), Ansu Fati (4), Pedri (7).

Coach: Xavi Hernandez (6).

Changes: Kessié (4) for De Jong (m. 57); Ferran (4) by Ansu Fati (d. 57); Raphinha (4) by Gavi (d. 73); Marcos (sc) by Balde (m. 81); S. Roberto (sc) by Busquets (d. 81).

goals: 0-1 (m. 22), Dembele.

Referee: Munuera Montero (5), Andalusian.

cards: Araujo, Correa, Christensen, Molina, Raphinha.

red: Savic, Ferran.

Stadium: Metropolitan.



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