Atletico Madrid have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals after two minutes of chaos at the end of the first half laid the foundations for a 2-0 first-leg win over Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
Diego Simeone’s side started the tie as slight underdogs having narrowly lost to Barcelona at the Metropolitano last week, but they will go into next week’s return leg as heavy favourites to progress after a performance that had all the hallmarks of the Simeone masterclasses of old.
Anyone who was lucky, if that is the right word, enough to watch the best Simeone sides will have known what to expect from Atletico ahead of a Champions League first-leg tie away at Barcelona, and this time round there were plenty of similarities as a moment of madness from Pau Cubarsi and a piece of brilliance from Julian Alvarez came to define the match.
The hosts were quickly on the front foot, Lamine Yamal and Marcus Rashford providing plenty of threat down the wings and the England international guilty of missing a good chance early on, firing too close to Juan Musso when played clean through. The on-loan winger did get the ball in the net eventually, but Yamal had gone too soon and strayed offside in the build-up.
The visitors remained a threat on the counter – as shown early on when a superb solo run from Julian Alvarez ended with the Argentine forcing a good save from Joan Garcia – but it was Barcelona who began to take control of the game in possession. Joao Cancelo and Yamal both came close to clear-cut chances, though they were kept at bay by the type of resolute defensive display we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Simeone sides in this competition.
The usual signs of an Atletico European away performance were there for all to see in each calculated foul, theatrical dive and last-ditch block, and in the end it was the classic away tactic that unlocked the game for the visitors, as Giuliano Simeone latched onto the clipped ball over the top to go clean through before being clipped by Pau Cubarsi.
The 19-year-old defender was initially shown a yellow card but it was quickly upgraded to a red – for denial of a goalscoring opportunity – after a brief VAR review, leaving the hosts depleted and the home crowd furious.
It was exactly what Simeone would have been dreaming about in the lead-up to the game, with the killer run delivered by none other than his own son. And while the game had so far followed the classic Simeone playbook, the first goal came via a route we’re less used to seeing from the Rojiblancos.
The hosts had been left reeling after the red card and the Camp Nou was paying little attention as Julian Alvarez lined up the free-kick from 25 yards, but the Argentine soon caught the eye as he stepped up to curl a magnificent effort past a sprawling Joan Garcia.
Barcelona were stunned on the stroke of half-time and Atletico had a dream start to the first leg. The Camp Nou waited for the second half with bated breath; neutrals watching around the world prepared for the type of diabolical display we’re used to seeing from Atleti when a game is poised like so.
Barcelona manager Hansi Flick was quick to change things at the break, taking off an ineffective Robert Lewandowski for Fermin Lopez and moving Rashford to centre-forward.
It almost paid off immediately too, the England international latching onto a through ball and rounding Musso before hitting the side-netting from a tight angle.
Rashford continued to be influential in attack – dovetailing well with Yamal and hitting the crossbar with a free-kick – and the 10-man hosts soon had their tails up, buoyed by a baying home crowd and an Atletico side who were all too happy to sit back.
But with the game in the balance – and just as it began to look like maybe Atletico were the team playing with 10 men – the visitors snatched the goal that might just put the tie beyond their opponents.
Barcelona had begun to dominate once more but a perfectly executed smash-and-grab attack saw Atletico grab a second, with Matteo Ruggeri cutting back a cross that was turned in by Alexander Sorloth.
It was a fairly speculative cross but Sorloth produced a brilliant finish to turn it in, hitting it on the volley from behind himself and guiding it expertly past Garcia.
The second goal will go down as a masterstroke from Simeone – who had brought on the Norwegian striker for Ademola Lookman only 10 minutes earlier – and it may yet go down as the goal that effectively decided the tie too.
Atletico now have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since 2016/17, and to add to the storylines, it is 10 years since the Rojiblancos were last in a European Cup final.
That game at the San Siro was marked by Antoine Griezmann’s penalty miss and their subsequent loss in the shootout, as the club missed out on becoming European royalty despite breaking into the upper echelons of the sport.
With the Frenchman approaching his final games with the club and with Simeone surely in the twilight of his time at the Metropolitano, that European Cup remains the one thing missing in the trophy cabinet.
It would be a fitting end to a fairytale of sorts if the duo were to put that 2017 final right in Budapest in May. In order to do that they’ll need to evoke the spirit of the Atletico sides from times gone by, and they made the perfect start tonight at the Camp Nou.
