Barcelona-Atletico 1-2: Simeone triumphs with Sorloth’s goal in the 96th minute

Incredible. Barça dominates, Atletico wins in the 96th minute with a goal from Sorloth after having suffered throughout the match defending in an ancient manner. Historic victory for Simeone who moves on to his eighteenth visit to Barcelona between Camp Nou and Montjuic and spends Christmas at the top of La Liga: Atletico 41 points, Barcelona 38 with one game more, Real Madrid 37 awaiting the match against Sevilla at the Bernabeu tomorrow . For Barcelona 5 points out of 21 in the last 7 of La Liga, for Simeone 12 victories in a row in 3 competitions, 7 in La Liga.

the choices

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Flick, disqualified and replaced by Marcus Sorg, does not have Lamine Yamal and leaves Dani Olmo on the bench to give space to the vitality of Fermin and Gavi, deployed in the double pivot with Casadò and the advancement of Pedri, fundamental. In Atletico, Gallagher on the left in place of Samu Lino. Blaugrana domination from the first minute and after various more or less dangerous warnings, with Gimenez and Lenglet forced into overtime, in the 30th minute the Catalans took the lead: action on the left, Iñigo Martinez for Fermin, discharge for Pedri who looks for the triangle with Gavi, finds it in a fortuitous way and scores a great goal. Pedri is the fittest of his team and leads Barça in a closed first half with the Madrid team unable to make a single shot towards the opponent’s goal.

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The second half started with a great opportunity wasted by Fermin, a shot saved by Oblak, and with Gimenez’s muscle injury, replaced by Witsel who was immediately booked for a foul on Lewandowski. Pedri Potter launches Raphinha who goes alone and tries the lob which ends up on the crossbar, wood number 19 for the culés, sixth for the Brazilian. And a moment later De Paul launches Julian Alvarez and is ready when Casadò leaves the ball dead on the edge of the area: precise right-footed shot from the former Udinese player for an undeserved and unexpected equaliser. Time for changes that take away the rhythm of the match. Barcelona continues to push and shortly after the half hour there is an incredible double opportunity: an absurd effort 3 meters from goal by Lewandowski on an assist from Ferran Torres and at the other end a nice save by Iñaki Peña on Pablo Barrios. Then Oblak took over, making himself a giant first against Raphinha launched by the usual Pedri and then on Pedri himself: Atletico survived thanks to their immense Slovenian goalkeeper. And in the last of the 6 minutes of injury time, a counterattack by De Paul and Molina sent Sorloth scoring for an absurd victory, glorious for cholismo and disastrous for an unfortunate and unfortunate Barça.