Barcelona fans hope for a bright future, heralding a ‘Xavi Renaissance’, after the team thrashed Atletico Madrid
In the 23rd round of the Spanish La Liga 2021/2022 season, Barcelona hosted Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou where they managed to get a surprising 4-2 victory that lifted the team to fourth place – many would say the crisis is definitely over.
Barcelona approached the meeting with Atlético Madrid with a run of five winless head-to-head matches against Atletico and three were without a goal scored. In a couple of years, Diego Simeone‘s side have suddenly become a really uncomfortable opponent for Barça. No one expected anything to change. But the game broke those patterns as Xavi Hernandez came up with some powerful new solutions.
Barcelona started in a 4-3-3 formation, although inside it was very flexible. When they pressed, Pedri was moving forward, forming something akin to a 4-4-2. In attack, the structure resembled a 2-3-5 with false full-backs. Of the relative surprises, Adama Traore made his debut on the right wing and Ferran Torres came on as forward. In terms of starting inputs and decisions, Barcelona were already better on paper.
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The score was opened early in the first half. In the 8th minute, Atlético player Yannick Carrasco netted the opener, assisted by ex-Barca Luis Suárez. In the 10th minute, Jordi Alba leveled, while veteran Dani Alves made an assist.
On 21 minutes, Barça youngster midfielder Gavi netted, Adama Traore who made his debut appearance for the Catalans after his return to the club, delivered the ball.
The Spaniard was at his best, literally destroying the defence of Indians
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In the 43rd minute, the hosts’ defender Ronald Araujo managed to consolidate the Blaugranas` lead even more.
Perhaps it was the best half by Barcelona under Xavi so far. Magnificent display.
In the 49th minute, Dani Alves made the score thrashing one but in the 58th minute, Luis Suarez played one back, cutting the gap between Atlético and Atlético de Madrid. The Uruguayan was assisted by Jose Jimenez.
Eventually, 69 minutes into the match, the referee sent off Dani Alves for kicking an opponent. The referee took this decision after watching the episode on VAR.
Here’s how Xavi assesses the match:
“Before Alves was sent off, everything was going fine. Then we had to pull back a little bit. But for the first 60 minutes it was the Barça we all want to see. After the suspension we did not break down, defended well and faced no difficulties. Simeone understands football differently, so we have our differences. But it is not a criticism of him. He’s a great coach, he’s won a lot of things and I’m a rookie. I have a lot of respect for him.”
“We have to be humble. It’s an important win, against the champions, plus considering we were conceding as the game went on. We played the first 60 minutes very well, but we can’t stop there, we have to move on,”
concluded Xavi.
Barcelona have 38 points from 22 games and are 4th in the Spanish Primera Division. Atletico (36) are fifth in the table. Real Madrid lead the competition with 50 points after 22 rounds.
In the dressing room, the ‘Puppet Master’ declared that no one else could stop his team. The victory is indeed inspiring and promising, but Barça have already crashed out of the Champions League and Spanish Cup, as well as failing to take the Super Cup. All of this has happened under Xavi.
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The fight that remains is for league medals and the second-best European Tournament – Europa League, with Napoli will try to trip up them in the first round of the play-offs. It could be that Xavi, Alves and the rest will finish the season without a single trophy if we think realistically.
Bronze medals are not far away, two points behind Betis with one game in hand, but what are bronze medals for Barcelona? Nothing less than failure – certainly not an end in itself, whatever winds the club may be blowing.
It is important to keep a cool calculation: Barça gave away a brilliant match against Atletico, but in February there are two matches against Napoli, a derby with Espanyol and other important things that could turn emotions in the opposite direction.
But still, as for the moment: Barça looked really good!
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- Barcelona would have been second in La Liga if the season had begun when Xavi took charge. The Blues would have been just two points behind Madrid with a decent record of six wins, three draws and just one defeat.
