In the fight for the La Liga title, Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Sunday thanks to a brilliant dinked finish from Joao Felix. The Portuguese striker, who is now on loan at Barcelona from Atletico, made it clear this summer that he was happy to be away from the Spanish capital and made his parent team pay at the Olympic Stadium. Before the match, Felix received criticism from a few Atletico players. Barca coach Xavi Hernandez urged him to draw motivation from those remarks, and Felix successfully complied.
Barca now trails leaders Real Madrid and second-place Girona by four points after the forward’s goal allowed them to recover third place from Atletico. “He made a difference for the team again, he gave everything, working hard, stealing the ball back, I am very happy for him,” Xavi told the media.
“I told him to be calm, this extra motivation sometimes speeds you up and you cross the line.”
Xavi praised the overall performance of his players. “We played well tonight, the team had personality, and I think it was our best, most complete game of the season.
“It’s a very positive sign of what we can and should do in every game – this is what Barca should be.”
Atletico came into the game believing that this might be the chance to break their 18-game losing record against the champions in La Liga, which dates back to 2006. Barcelona has had form and confidence issues ever since losing to Real Madrid in the Clasico at the end of October.
After 28 minutes, Felix broke the tie with a deft move to ride Nahuel Molina’s challenge and then dink the ball over Jan Oblak, the Atletico custodian, as Barcelona opened the game strongly and created chances.
Felix raised his arms in celebration and stood on the advertising hoardings in front of the incensed visiting fans, while Diego Simeone, the coach of the Rojiblancos, looked annoyed as he appeared on the big screens.
The 24-year-old striker, who set a club record in 2019 by signing for 126 million euros (137 million dollars), never adjusted to life in the capital and did not mesh well with Simeone’s style of play or management.
Felix described his celebration to Movistar, saying, “It was spontaneous… in the heat of the game and it was like a relief, for everything I lived through this summer.”
“Every week I’m talked about, whether for good or bad, I do my job, without looking at what they say or think.”
Axel Witsel was soon booked for hacking Felix to the ground shortly after, which may not have happened by coincidence. Felix nearly scored a second with a nudging attempt from Ilkay Gundogan’s cut-back, but Oblak stopped him this time.
Barcelona dominated the game as Gundogan performed well in midfield alongside the healthy-again Pedri and Frenkie de Jong. At the beginning of the second half, Raphinha clipped the post to eject Barcelona supporters from their seats.
The crowd, which was the club’s lowest of the season despite playing against elite opponents, was less than 35,000, maybe as a result of the later kickoff time and the colder winter evenings. In the second half, Atletico made some progress, but not enough to force an equalizer.
Antoine Griezmann, the Rojiblancos’ talisman, put forth a lot of effort, but he was unable to score against his former employers; in 14 meetings against Barca, he has failed to score. Another former Barcelona player, Memphis Depay, went closest for Atletico with a free kick that Inaki Pena mishandled.
Simeone conceded, “They had more personality with the ball and they started better.”
“The team improved and had the chance to equalize.”
Robert Lewandowski, who has only scored three goals in his last ten games for the team in all competitions, missed a late chance to seal Barcelona’s victory. Fourth-place Atletico leads the top two by seven points and Barca by three.
Atletico goalie Oblak told Movistar, “I don’t know what happened, but the idea was to go for the game.”
“Nobody was good in the first half, nobody wanted the ball, nobody wanted to play.”
Earlier on Sunday, 10-man Real Betis held winless bottom side Almeria 0-0 at home. Under new coach Diego Alonso, struggling Sevilla, ranked 15th, drew 1-1 with Villarreal and have lost their last 10 games in both La Liga and the Champions League.