On Saturday, Barca won the massive clash against Atletico, and virtually secured the league title. Therefore, after the win Barca lead at the top of the table by 11 points, 7 games before the end of the league. Although the league is not over yet, among the players and the fans it felt like a title decider. However, it was close to finish 0-0, but there were Suarez and Messi to secure the win. The post-match thoughts of the Barca vs Atletico match take into account the fact that Barca won in the last minutes, but after dominating for most of the match.
The privilege of having Messi and Suarez
Messi is an alien, no doubt about it. In the age of only 31, he’s gonna win his 10th league title, and that’s something amazing. In addition, with the win against Atletico, Messi became the player with most wins in La liga’s history. It’s amazing how a player stays “hungry” for such a long time.
However, people tend to forget that Suarez is one of the most decisive strikers of all time. Since 2016, Luisito scored in 5 matches against Atleti, breaking the tie in all of them. In addition, he also scored the first goal in 4 different ‘Clasicos’, like the first one of this season- leading the 5-1 win. Therefore, Suarez is historical, and the striker who will replace him in the long term will have huge shoes to fill.
Pique is underrated
Gerard Pique is an amazing Center-back, with huge achievements all over his career. However, the media and the fans still don’t rate him as high as they should. In addition, in the bad matches he’s one of the players to get criticize in every loss. However, when you see Barca’s defense against Atleti, and compare it to the match against Villarreal, its huge difference.
Coutinho and Malcom are getting there
We already talked about reaching the ‘peak‘ of the season, and it’s time for the big players to step up. Therefore, it’s great to see both Malcom and Coutinho perform well in the matches when we need them. Therefore, with Dembele’s return soon, we’ll have great depth in our attack, and that’s good for us.
Looking for Manchester United
One of the Spectators in the match against Atletico was Man Utd’s coach – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. However, even he knows that his team won’t be able to defend as well as Atletico. The attack of Barca should do the job. If Barca will play as good as Saturday, it will be impossible for Man Utd to win.
Another good thing is that between the matches against United, Barca will have a chance to rotate against Huesca. With 11 points leading, Barca can even lose points there, so we expect massive rotations.