Barcelona 1-1 Atletico Madrid: 3 Things We Learned

FC Barcelona couldn’t destroy the walls of Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night and failed to close the gap on Real Madrid after playing a 1-1 draw against Diego Simeone’s side in an enticing encounter at the Camp Nou.

Ivan Rakitic opened the scoring but his beautiful header was cancelled out by substitute Angel Correa after making a mockery of Barcelona defence. The result was then soured by the news that star man Lionel Messi will be out for three weeks with a groin injury. Here are 3 lessons from the game.

1. INIESTA IS PURE FOOTBALLING MAGIC

Barça failed to win, but captain and midfielder Andres Iniesta was the Man of the Match by a mile. Words can’t explain Iniesta’s performance but we can try. He was scintillating in both attack and defence and he caused real danger to Atletico Madrid almost every time he had the ball. He controlled the fluidity of the game and had Atleti’s midfield of Koke and Co. in the palm of his hands.

Iniesta provided the assist for Rakitic’s goal with an exquisite pass but that was like the least thing he did as he was pure class throughout the game. His long passes to switch play were all pinpoint, his defensive actions to recover balls and make tackles were top draw, his creativity and dribbling were god-like, he was a joy to watch.. he ended it by blowing Messi a beautiful kiss wishing him a quick recovery which was beautiful to see just as much as his performance. A true captain. The best midfielder in the world.

2. ATLETICO MADRID ARE A GOOD TEAM

Criticizing their style is wrong, Atletico Madrid are a team with great character. The level of concentration shown by their players throughout the game was great and they kept on fighting and got the equalizer despite looking all-defensive, Diego Simeone is a top tactician.

The result is far from being a negative one, Barça played well, extremely well and got a good result against a very good side, it’s not something we should be ashamed of as Atletico Madrid are one of the best teams in the world, easily the best defensive side though.

3. THE GAME IS A SIGN OF POSITIVITY

People expect Barça to always win and it’s understandable as more is expected of the best team in the world. The draw against Atletico Madrid was a sign of positivity in so many ways, firstly: Barça’s performance.

In the first half, Barça put up one of the best performances you could ever see from a top team, kept on passing around with great patience and were rewarded with a goal. Atletico Madrid’s defence was just too coordinated and with the way Barça played in the first half any other team would’ve conceded at least three goals.

Also, people expected Barça to crumble totally after Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi were brought off injured but that wasn’t the case, the team kept on dominating and creating loads of chances with Andre Gomes and Arda Turan and it’s a good sign that they can achieve big things even when their most important players aren’t present.

All what we can take from the game is positivity, the team played well and if they keep on playing at this level then they will have a strong stand in their aim to win all possible trophies this season.