CL quarters: Atletico - Barca (3-2 agg)

[PhilS]

It's no shame to be outplayed over two games by a team the quality of Athletico Madrid. Their defense in the first half of the first game and the entire second game was some of the best I have ever seen. For game 2, they cured their defensive over-aggressiveness from game 1. Their finishing was superb. They showed great skill to render the Barca press so ineffective.

This does not mean that Barca is terrible, or that AM is overall a better team. There is a reason why no team has ever repeated in CL: the competition gets fierce at about this stage, and the teams are close enough in quality that the worser team will come out on top when they have a good week and the better team has an off week. AM is damn good, and were clearly better for these two games. Barca can now rally and win Liga and Copa, finish off a good season. Winning these two, big trophies over the likes of RM and AM would be a major accomplishment.

Lucho was badly out-coached by Chulo in the first half yesterday. Barca did not even seem to want to advance the ball past midfield until after AM scored, I have no idea why.

 

[PhilS]

Why do people use the Atletico game to say what would have happened vs Real Madrid and Bayern? Atletico is the most in form team in Europe atm. Didn't they beat Madrid at home not long ago? And please, Bayern should have been out vs Juventus if not for the refs helping them stay alive in the tie. And Atletico is better than Juventus. They should have been out earlier than us FFS.

Over these two games, Atletico looked to me like the type of team that should win the CL. I don't really like the way they play, it is not beautiful. But you have to respect and admire football played at their current level. Their next opponent is in serious trouble, no matter who that is.

 

[Kohe321]

Posting this here as well:

I feel strangely okay with us being out. I've probably been unconciously preparing for it having seen our form drop and drop over the past weeks.

Let's be honest, with our current form the chances of us progressing through the semis to the final would be very low, and all it then would serve us was 180 more minutes of intense matches that could end up zapping what little energy we had left for the Liga and CDR. Not having to play two more intense mid-week games, with the mental and physical drain that it involves for everyone just before the weekened Liga matches, could actually be what ultimately makes us secure the LL title. Don't forget, winning the league is one of the biggest things you can win.

It wasn't meant to be this season. It's hard to win the CL back to back, the team just looks exhausted - and when you're exhausted you need some enormous motivation to push through it. I am sure that if you asked every one of our players whether or not they were motivated to win against Atletico, they would all answer "yes!" without a moments hesitation, but subconciously that "fire" that they all had last season before the treble just isn't there right now. And that's just a fact of life and completely understandable no matter how frustrating it is to us fans.

(The exception might be Suarez, but he's a special case in this regard. )

Add to this the fact that we are in a big slump with regards to form and synergy between the players, and the result yesterday doesn't come as a surprise. Atletico deservedly went through.

So in short, keep your heads up and be glad we have a team that still is in competition for two major trophies, and who just some months ago gave us the happiness of winning the treble. It could definitely be worse...

 

[serghei]

Well said mate. Only thing I don't agree with is that the chances of progressing through the semis to the final would've been low. Depends. If we eliminated Atletico and got City, we would've been in the final probably. And you never know in a final. We were just unlucky with the draw, the hardest opponent, with the 2nd leg away, after clasico and the fucking FIFA virus and comming after a treble win with a thing squad. 4-5 variables that depended on randomness and were totally against us.

CL is about luck sometimes. Sure, when you win it like we did it in 2011 and 2015, there's not much luck involved. Completely dominated every opponent we faced. But you can also win it without being very dominant, getting some favourable draws, meeting weaker teams, or scoring from a random corner in min 90+2 or so at 0-1. Sometimes you win the CL by way of domination, us and Bayern in 2013 in the last period, sometimes you win it because things you can't control just go your way.

 

[Kohe321]

Well said mate. Only thing I don't agree with is that the chances of progressing through the semis to the final would've been low. Depends. If we eliminated Atletico and got City, we would've been in the final probably. And you never know in a final. We were just unlucky with the draw, the hardest opponent, with the 2nd leg away, after clasico and the fucking FIFA virus and comming after a treble win with a thing squad. 4-5 variables that depended on randomness and were totally against us.

CL is about luck sometimes. Sure, when you win it like we did it in 2011 and 2015, there's not much luck involved. Completely dominated every opponent we faced. But you can also win it without being very dominant, getting some favourable draws, meeting weaker teams, or scoring from a random corner in min 90+2 or so at 0-1. Sometimes you win the CL by way of domination, us and Bayern in 2013 in the last period, sometimes you win it because things you can't control just go your way.

True it's a mix, but the aspect of luck certainly plays a part and it's one of the many reasons why it's so difficult to win it back to back. Football is a game of margins, and not just during the games, but as you say also when it comes to stuff like avoiding injuries on key players when it matters most, team-draws and hitting the best form collectively at the right time, and so on. Many positive things must come together at the right time and many negative things that you can't properly control, like injuries or poor form hitting out of the blue, needs to be avoided. It takes a lot, and this is why I still find a lot of satisfaction in our treble last season, and accept that it simply wasn't to be this season.

Here's hoping we can stay ahead in the league and win it. That alone would be huge for me, and if we can win the CDR as well then the season will be extremely successful as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Zachary]

A team that concedes that easily at home and has to waste 4-5 chances, before scoring has no chance to win the UCL, at this level a goal can decisively tilt the scale.

Conceding at home, at basically the first chance was mind blowing. No change not so ever tactically after the first few minutes, no reaction to all the fucking red flags, just waiting for atletico to score.

Lucho lost the team tactically, they reverted to a passive, undisciplined way of playing, where they don't press, don't move, don't go for runs.

Sure atletico played well and it's always hard to break them open, but players didn't even try getting into positions that could create danger, was just auto pilot, all along and this is Lucho's fault.

We all know inside this was a great year for a 3-peat, now odds of just getting the Cup are high. To make matters worst, i already see ronaldo lifting the UCL again.

Summing up, this was no accident, it was coming a mile away, but no one, either Lucho or key players even bothered to turn things around (except Suarez), everyone was putting on a fake positive attitude, reminiscing about our form in Oct-Dec last year and hoping we got away with it.

Positive attitude doesn't change shit, reacting tactically changes shit. Don't believe we'll improve, acknowledge you suck atm and change something.

Absolutely correct!

 

[Kikan]

We are yet to see how this season end , so la liga and CDR are not in the pocket as some seem to think . Barca's form is terrible and players seem to be completely out of Gas and ideas . Barca is SLOW with no spirits .

-lack of rotation in the front three is one of the main contributor to the form . Neymar is a shadow of himself , messi despite being the best is exhusted and failed regularly in every aspect of the game from scoring , to passing to creating chances . When the front three do not produce the defense suffer considering our defense has always been a suspect .

-

 

[Zachary]

A few hours later and after I've calmed down a bit, all I can say is WOW that was truly an laughable and embarrassingly bad performance.

Like we were really next level terrible.

100% deserved to go out.

Yes, Sr, totally agree, but was it really that much different from Anoeta, or at CN vs Madrid? Or even the first half at CN's first leg against Atletico? No, absolutely NO. We had all already seen this strange Barca in previous games, only that Atletico's tightening intensity yet another notch was enough to make this already under achieving group look even worse, if that was posiible, and it was!

 

[Zachary]

You don't sound like a cunt it's just sometimes the best course of action maybe a bit counter-intuitive. But I am genuinely interested if the amount of running a team does has an effect on the output and I'm trying to find any league year to year running statistics but not having much luck...

You sound like if you heard somebody say that Messi should go into the field and start running like crazy with no purpose. Well, that's not what the subject is about. The subject is that Messi needs to be quick about moving IN ORDER TO GET OPEN (which is English to DESMARCARSE) more often, as he's always standing close to an oponent, so the guy with the ball has to look some place else to pass. It is more accurate to say that Messi is too static and that doesn't help anybody. Maybe he needs to watch English games and learn to make himself open all the time.

 

[AnnieSureshot]

You sound like if you heard somebody say that Messi should go into the field and start running like crazy with no purpose. Well, that's not what the subject is about. The subject is that Messi needs to be quick about moving IN ORDER TO GET OPEN (which is English to DESMARCARSE) more often, as he's always standing close to an oponent, so the guy with the ball has to look some place else to pass. It is more accurate to say that Messi is too static and that doesn't help anybody. Maybe he needs to watch English games and learn to make himself open all the time.

I don't know how you got that from what I'm saying since I didn't even mention Messi here.
Also, yes in general Messi tends not to run much. He also tends to get Ballon D'Ors.

 

[El Flaco]

Metres covered by player

Atlético de Madrid

Koke 12,226
Saul 12,160
Gabi 11,824
Griezmann 11,417
Augusto 11,431
Juanfran 9,911
Carrasco 9,855
Filipe 9,738
Godín 9,167
Lucas 8,936
Oblak 4,471
Thomas 2,486
Correa 0,672
Savic 0,275

Barcelona

Busquets 11,013
Alba 10,995
Iniesta 10,252
Piqué 9,802
Mascherano 8,612
Rakitic 7,885
Alves 7,218
Messi 7,049
Ter Stegen 4,603
Sergi Roberto 3,674
Arda 3,204

http://en.as.com/en/2016/04/14/football/1460625394_795375.html

 

[6 Ballons for Messi]

Rocketic the workhorse only ran 800m more than messi, I knew there was something wrong with him.

 

[S2K1985]

Rocketic the workhorse only ran 800m more than messi, I knew there was something wrong with him.

But raki was subbed( 64 min)

 

[6 Ballons for Messi]

But raki was subbed( 64 min)

Yes but still.

 

[barcanuck]

The no one repeats CL phrase rings true again.

You can see why Lucho wanted Nolito we need someone to sub in to help the MSN.

Simeone chose one hell of a time to beat Lucho for the first time. hats off to their bus it was great and they took their counters well.