“Fermin’s explosion,” “De Jong’s full-back,” and “Alvarez’s hesitation.”.. the most prominent moments of Barcelona’s victory over Atletico Madrid

Fermin Lopez led Barcelona to achieve a valuable 2-1 victory over Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano Stadium, thus expanding the gap at the top of the Spanish League to three points, after the Catalan team succeeded in turning a deficit into a victory. The first minutes witnessed great excitement, as a strong header from Mark Popil - Atletico Madrid defender - hit the crossbar, before Pedri responded with a powerful shot from Barcelona, ​​which also hit the crossbar.

Shortly after, Juliano Simeone opened the scoring for Atletico Madrid with a direct and precise touch to a ground cross from Julian Alvarez. In the middle of the first half, luck prevented David Hanko from scoring a goal, as his smart touch of the ball went right past the post.

Before the end of the first half, Barcelona managed to equalize; Fermin Lopez fortunately took advantage of a ball that bounced back to him, and shot it directly and with high accuracy into the far corner of the goal. The Spanish midfielder succeeded in giving Barcelona the lead after the start of the second half, when he shot a perfect ball that crossed at an angle beyond the goalkeeper's reach, after receiving an assist from Lamine Yamal.

This goal was supposed to pave the way for an exciting second half, but the game never regained the free and fluid attacking momentum we saw before the break. However, Barcelona will not care much about this; The team achieved victory in its first six matches away from home in the league, an achievement that had only been achieved three times in the club’s history, while Atletico Madrid’s winning streak - which lasted for seven consecutive matches in the “La Liga” - stopped suddenly.

A special occasion for Alvarez after he was the focus of attention in the summer, and Barcelona's desire to include him caused a crisis between the Barcelona and Atletico Madrid administrations. Alvarez played his first match against the Catalan team since that incident. Last summer, Barcelona expressed its desire to include the player and made more than one offer, but Atletico's management refused to sell the player and insisted on him remaining with the team despite the Argentine striker announcing his desire to join Barcelona.

In his first appearance against the Flick battalion, Alvarez assisted Simeone's first goal in the match, but he wasted more than one scoring opportunity, the most notable of which was in the first half when he was alone with goalkeeper Joan Garcia, but he wasted the opportunity strangely. Argentine coach Diego Simeone always encouraged and motivated his player during the match and kept him on the field until the end of the match.

After the inconsistent performance in the first half from young player Brian Farinas, German coach Hansi Flick resorted to an idea that Barcelona fans had never seen before, when he fielded Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong as a right-back. The entry of De Jong, who also played this season as a centre-back, led to Barcelona dominating the ball more and closing off a key source on the right flank.

Frenkie remained in this position until the 74th minute, when Flick brought on defender Eric Garcia instead of midfielder Marc Bernal, turning Garcia into a right-back and De Jong into a midfielder, which contributed greatly to the visitors’ absolute control over the midfield in the second half. Leading the way before the break Barcelona succeeded in maintaining the lead in the Spanish League before the international break, which had already begun, as it reached its 33rd point, ahead of Real Madrid by three points and Atletico by 5 points.

This fact represents a strong morale boost for the Catalan team, which faced a difficult period after the last international break, as it lost to Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, and its lead became threatened after it was superior by 6 points.