Barça shows heart but falls against a cowardly Atlètic

BarcelonaBarça put in the heart and football, but a cowardly Atlético de Madrid knew how to get oil from their visit to the Camp Nou (0-2). With two goals in barely three shots on target, the Colchoneros punished a blaugrana team that had to play the entire second half with one less player due to Pau Cubarsí's expulsion in the 43rd minute. The fans flocked to the stadium en masse, hopeful and excited about a group of players who have often made them happy with comebacks and thrashings, but this time the outcome was very cruel.

Hansi Flick's Barça is synonymous with fun, pride, believing until the last minute, and that's what the fans will have to hold onto for the return to the Metropolitano next Tuesday, where an epic appeal will be needed to turn around a tie in which Diego Pablo Simeone's team are favorites thanks to goals from Julián and Sorloth, which would appease Barça despite the Catalans dominating them even with one man down. The passivity of referee István Kovács, who forgave numerous yellow cards to the Madrilenians, would despair the blaugranas.

Football often doesn't understand justice, and the end of the first half held a catastrophic outcome for Pau Cubarsí. It's not the first time the center-back, so often excellent, has been overconfident in risky situations. In one of the few attacking forays the red-and-whites made during the first half, as they dared to venture out, Julián received the ball about three-quarters of the way up the field. Barça was out of position because their lines were advanced to launch a high press after a Lamine turnover. The Argentine took advantage and drove forward, facing the lukewarm defense of an Olmo who, had he known the outcome, would surely have committed the tactical foul the situation called for.

But instead, Julián was able to send a chipped ball towards Giuliano's run, who was very clever to draw the foul. Cubarsí was the last man and Kovács punished the action with a yellow card, surely because he had interpreted that the attacker did not have control of the ball - it had stayed slightly behind him - nor had the center-back from Estanyol gone in hard on the action. But from VAR, in an unusual change of criteria in the Champions League, the German Christian Dingert insisted to his colleague that the center-back was the last man and that he should go and look at the monitor. The action was a kick in the stomach for Barça. The Blaugranas went from seeing themselves as dominant throughout the first half to being left with one less player and conceding the first goal of a painful Champions League night at the stadium.

Julián puts Atlético ahead with a great goal

Julián had his moment of glory. Not only had he provided the pass for Giuliano's run that would lead to Cubarsí's expulsion, but he would also be in charge of converting the foul into a screamer goal that would silence the blaugrana fans for a few moments. With his usual calm, the forward who has Joan Laporta smitten and who swapped Guardiola's City for Simeone's Atlètic, connected with a shot that would fly over the wall, beating two giants like Gerard and Lewandowski. The ball would drop in a swerving motion, out of reach of Joan's stretched hand.

The 0-1 was a painful slap in the face to all of Barcelonismo because Barça had been better than their opponent and, without knowing almost how, they found themselves trailing on the scoreboard and with one player less. From the runs of a good Rashford down the left and Lamine Yamal's dribbles to beat opponent after opponent despite the harshness with which they punished him, with Kovács' permissiveness, it went to Julián's own goal. Even, Barça had celebrated a goal, when the scoreboard still had not changed and the night had not gone awry. In the 18th minute, the fans had lifted their bottoms off their seats and extended their arms high up when Rashford had pushed a delicious pass from Lamine into the back of the net. The goal would be disallowed for offside by the winger.

Sorloth punishes Barça's reaction

It was one of the few moments when Barcelona fans allowed themselves to dream before the night punished a Barça that did not see its exercise of faith rewarded in the second half. With numerical inferiority, Flick shook up the bench at halftime. The German appealed to the hearts of Gavi and Fermín to renew his team's energy. The Blaugranas emerged from the tunnel ready to bite, to deny Atlético a comfortable game. Rashford would again come close to scoring after a brilliant pass from Lamine, but the ball would be too long for him when he had already beaten Musso's charge.

The goalkeeper would also fly to save a free-kick from the Englishman, who connected a very hard shot that Musso deflected to the crossbar with his fingertips. In the only moment that Barça, exhausted, allowed itself a defensive respite, Griezmann detected Ruggieri's run, who too easily got past Koundé on the wing, and served a cross that the giant Sorloth, imposing his physique over Gerard, would turn into the second.

Despite the faith of Lamine and Cancelo, Barça would not manage to close the gap against an Atlético that took advantage of every action to waste time. The Blaugranas will have to entrust themselves to a great exercise of faith at the Metropolitano. If there is one thing that has taught us to believe, it is Hansi Flick.