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MOTD: Barcelona 2-1 Atletico Madrid

By on April 5, 2016

The enigma of Fernando Torres lives on. For so long, he has been vying to get a breakthrough goal in the Champions League to translate his good run of form in La Liga into Europe. Finally, he bagged the goal he has been looking for to put Atletico Madrid up 1-0 against Barcelona in their Champions League Quarterfinals first leg tie. And then, within a half hour, he bizarrely got himself sent off, putting a sour twist on the night for Atletico.

Only an organized, desperate defensive performance from Madrid held a rampant Barca to two second half goals. Barca were virtually camped in Atletico’s box in the second period, seeing nearly 80% of the ball. Luis Suarez scored a brace to turn it around for the Blaugrana and poise the tie for another enthralling matchup in the second leg.

Atleti managed to prevent being rolled over by the reigning European Champions despite being a man down, and now have a fighting chance heading into the second leg at home, but this could have been so much more for the visitors if not for Torres’ two rash yellow cards. They were always going to sit deep and play on the break, but Torres’ sending off gave Barca the numerical advantage to surge forward and secure their seventh consecutive win against Atletico.

“We had our chances, but we always knew it was going to be really difficult. We think we are still alive,” said Atletico boss Diego Simeone.

Simeone’s men defended as an organized unit in the first half and pressed high up the pitch, interrupting Barca’s usual flow of play. Barca knew exactly the tactics Atleti would deploy, and Suarez, Lionel Messi, and Neymar probed and prodded the visitor’s back-line in the early stages, but Madrid were stubbornly effective at the back.

Neymar headed a good chance over from Diego Alves’ cross and Messi dragged a low effort wide of the frame before Torres scored on the break from Atleti’s first chance of the match.

Koke slipped Torres in through the middle and the Spaniard tucked a cool effort through the legs of Marc Andre ter Stegen and into the back of the net. Antoine Greizmann, Atleti’s engine on the attack, then forced Ter Stegen into a brilliant stop with a low, volleyed effort from the top of the box.

Yet Torres quickly went from hero to zero, losing his cool and getting sent off for a clumsy challenge on Sergio Busquets in the thirty-fifth minute.

Alves drove deep at every opportunity and Messi came close on the other side of the half with a gorgeous bicycle-kick sent just past the post. Neymar curled onto the bar in the fifty-first minute, but Atleti were finally undone by Suarez, who was in position to turn in Jordi Alba’s errant shot in the sixty-third minute. The Uruguayan then powered Alves’ cross past Jan Oblak to give Barca the upper hand heading into the second leg.

Homepage photo credit: Alex Fau (Neymar) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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.