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MOTD- Atletico Madrid 0-0 Barcelona

By on January 11, 2014

Still nothing can separate Atletico Madrid and Barcelona. Not points in La Liga, not league wins, draws, or losses, nor their last three meetings, including tonight. Only goal differential in the Spanish La Liga, and perhaps the fact that this was not a vintage Barcelona performance yet one of Atletico’s more solid matches over the past month or so.  Despite the fact that Barca kept sixty-nine percent of possession, Atletico actually enjoyed the majority of the better chances albeit most of them were on the break, but the match still ended in a goalless draw.  In reality, the match was nearly an exact replica of when the two sides played out a goalless draw in August.

The only real winners were Real Madrid, who now have a chance to come within three points of the top of the La Liga table on Sunday, when they face Espanyol.  Yet both Atletico and Barca had many chances to take the lead throughout the game.  Just three minutes into the match Arda Turan skipped down the left and into the box down the byline before chipping a cute ball into the six yard box, only to see Gerard Pique nearly head it into the back of his own net in an attempted clearance.  Diego Costa then sent a vicious half-volley into the arms of Victor Valdes from the top of the box as Atletico continued to push forward, but the visitors at the Vicente Calderon nearly took the lead in the seventeenth minute when Pedro’s low shot from the edge of the box was barely saved at the bottom left corner by Atletico goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

In the twenty-seventh minute Atletico once again came close when Miranda flicked a corner for the home side towards the far post, where Costa just managed to slip in and tap the ball just wide of the far post, yet the Barca began to take the pace out of the match and chances became few and far between.  However, as the match switched into the second half the match once again became very open, and the chances began to flood in at both ends.  Turan slipped the ball into the run of Costa down the middle, where the club’s top scorer sent a low twenty yard drive just wide of the post in the fifty-eighth minute, nine minutes before Lionel Messi flicked a header inches wide of the far post from Jordi Alba’s clipped cross from the left.

In the seventy-eighth minute the ball fell for Turan twelve yards out from goal, only for Valdes to get behind the Turk’s acrobatic side-volley.  Yet the best chance of the match then fell to Barca as Messi whizzed into the box before sending a low effort towards the bottom right corner, where Courtois just barely managed to claw the shot away.  Neither side seized to attack or defend wretchedly, but nor did either side manage to take the lead, and after four minutes off added time the match ended 0-0.
Man of the Match Diego Costa

 

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.