CAMP NOU, Barcelona — It was previously a nervous
night. Not one high on excellence or chances. Effort, yes. That was Diego
Simeone’s doing, the way the Atletico Madrid coach wanted the game, despite the
relatively attacking lineup he picked on Wednesday.
But then Barcelona slipped from side to side past Atletico’s
guard. Ivan Rakitic’s 41st-minute goal broke the skin of the game, and finally
blood was starting to run. After resisting Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez
for so long, Atletico were undone, incredibly, by a short-corner routine. Traditionally, corners are their forte, both defensively and offensively, while over the years they have been Barcelona’s kryptonite. That has changed under manager Luis Enrique and assistant coach Juan Carlos Unzue, the man in charge of masterminding Barcelona’s set-piece strategy.
Andres Iniesta received the ball short and floated back down the ground until he had worked an inviting angle for himself to swing it in, and Rakitic nodded home.
Barcelona know they can turn to the Croatian when in need. He has opened the scoring for them on 11 occasions—58 per cent of his 19 strikes for the club have broken the deadlock.
This time, his team could not capitalise. Angel Correa levelled the scores in the second half, and they stayed at 1-1, even as the game opened up toward the end. There were three crucial moments that led up to Correa’s goal.
One unfortunate, one avoidable and one a little of both.
Unfortunate was Sergio Busquets's withdrawal a few minutes after half-time. The player had been feeling unwell, and Enrique took him off as a precaution after he asked to be removed. Good management, but Barcelona paid the price, as they lost the solidity Busquets impresses on the team.
Then Messi was substituted, having clutched at his thigh and later sat down on the edge of the penalty area. The Argentinian was obviously having groin problem, a repeat of a trouble that plagued him while on international duty with Argentina earlier in September.
It is unfortunate, of course, to lose the best player in the world. Preventable, though, because Messi rushed himself back into action after the international break. Perhaps the medical team and coach should have made him wait to make his return.
Little more than 60 seconds after Messi left the field came the avoidable error that cost Barcelona the goal.
Already rocked, almost dazed, by seeing Busquets and Messi taken off, Barcelona were dumped on the deck by a quick Atletico move—quite literally in the case of Javier Mascherano.
Gerard Pique was suckered by Fernando Torres, who nutmegged him after a quick free-kick, before Correa zipped past Mascherano, leaving him on the turf like Messi did to Jerome Boateng in the Champions League semi-final first leg in 2015 and scythed the ball in off the post.
Both Pique and Mascherano erred here, but these actions unfortunately marred what would otherwise have been considered high-quality games for both centre-backs.