A great Barça, a cruel night, by Santiago Segurola

The best Barça of the season, beyond their victorious performances against Real Madrid and Bayern, suffered one of those defeats that hurts the soul. The gigantic Sorloth, who came on in the second half and was noticed in each of his interventions, scored in the last moment of the match, a goal that places Atlético de Madrid in the lead at the end of the League. The data will weigh like an anvil on Barça, whose balance in the last games is terrifying –5 points out of 21 at stake–, but their display was impressive in all aspects. You can’t play better and take a deeper stab in return.

The numbers show Atlético’s impeccable statistics. He has won 12 consecutive games, a record that forces him to be awarded one of the three candidates for the title. It is a team that always proposes itself as champion when it leads the first half of the championship. Otherwise, tie up your place in the Champions League and that’s it. Two-time national championship winner in the last 10 years, he intends to keep a low profile. Simeone hates being a favorite, although he should review his birth chart this season. Atlético’s victory in Montjuïc can only be explained because in this League they have all the stars aligned.

You can’t play better and receive a deeper stab in return

A fast, creative and energetic version of Barça failed to bend the knee of Atlético, in its most simeonist role. He finished three times, scored two goals and demanded a formidable intervention from Peña. The rest corresponded to a strict resistance exercise. Catenaccio That model of the game used to be called, although the pressure, intensity and ideas of Barça forced him to adopt such an extreme position. Barça crushed him in the first and second half, demanded several interventions from Oblak, some of great quality, found the crossbar in a delicate chip from Raphinha and wasted Pedri’s memorable game.

Barça impressed in the first half with its aggressiveness, precision and consistency, around its young line of midfielders, made up of Casadó, Pedri, Gavi and Fermín. Difficult to resolve with such finesse situations that were driven by vertigo, both to attack and to defend. And in the center of the wave, Pedri. Punished by injuries in the last two seasons, he was considered a player in regression, far from the very high ceiling he set in his first season. He burst forth like a star and, for whatever reasons, his brilliance faded little by little. Pedri has not only returned. Now he surpasses the performance of his best days at Barça. Atlético did not find a way to stop him. An all-round player, tireless in his efforts, exquisite in all his decisions, brilliant at solving the most complex situations of the game, Pedri scored the goal that put Barça ahead and it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. In the outstanding effort of the entire team, the Canarian player was above all the others.

Nothing can be blamed on a team that sought victory with as much passion as creativity. Barça locked Atlético in their area, where Simeone’s team is more comfortable than any other, but not so comfortable as to admit the bad experience that occurred throughout the game. He won it because football is mysterious. He punished the great game of a team that emptied itself in search of victory and rewarded the one that speculated ad nauseum.