Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona: La Liga’s two best equipped teams ready to collide
Diego Simeone is still in search of his first league win against the Catalans
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Your support makes all the difference.Midway through the 2014/15 season, Spanish outlet Marca ran a feature on the ten most historic mosaics to have been displayed by fans right before kick-off in recent ‘Clásicos’, with Barcelona supporters particularly keen to further their political agendas by using 98,000 cards to exhibit a Catalan flag.
While these pre-match showpieces are more common in El Clásico ties, Atletico Madrid’s planned display against Barcelona, what will be the biggest in their history, will see 67,000 cards make up a mosaic.
Despite their obvious ostentatious quality, there will be more than flamboyance on display when first faces third at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Mosaics may have provided a worthy backdrop for El Clásico pre-match rituals over the years, but just as has happened on the pitch, Atletico Madrid have once again forced themselves into the title frame and consequently shattering the ‘Clásico’ duopoly, sitting just a point behind Barcelona and three above Real Madrid.
Yet as Atletico try to replicate the Catalans’ off-field extravagance, their success on the pitch has come by avoiding Barcelona’s renowned style of play.
“If they played like Barcelona do then they wouldn’t compete for titles,” former Atletico captain Gabi told Cadena SER this week.
“I don’t think they could have competed by playing tiki-taka. Atletico haven’t changed and they play as they always have,” he added.
The two sides may pertain to contrasting footballing philosophies, but the objective of league glory remains the same in both camps, and they appear to be the sides best equipped to last the course.
A glance at the La Liga table provides enough evidence of some of the success stories from Spain this season, namely from Catalonia, Andalusia and the Basque Country with Espanyol, Sevilla and Alaves all currently occupying positions in the top five.
However, yet again, it demonstrates why Atletico find themselves within touching distance of Catalonia’s biggest sporting brand. They have conceded just eight goals in 12 league fixtures, while at the other end they have put away just 16.
Barcelona have scored more than double that, and that figure is fewer than that of Real Madrid, Sevilla and Celta Vigo.
Splurging out these facts as criticism of Diego Simeone’s outfit however would undermine the training pitch drudgery El Cholo has overseen to balance attack and defence, and a man who is currently looking to secure that stability at Arsenal believes it is ridiculous to label Simeone as one-dimensional.
“Even if you want to have the ball, they press you so well and high that they pressure you like animals and eat you. There are days when Cholo is very attacking. I think to pigeonhole him is absurd,” Unai Emery told Marca this week.
Evidence of that attacking prowess has been limited this season, with Diego Costa still not off the mark in La Liga, Antoine Griezmann notching just three from 12 appearances, fellow countryman Thomas Lemar stumbling his way to two league strikes, while Nikola Kalinic and Gelson Martins’ impact from the bench has been minimal.
‘D-Day for Costa ahead of Barcelona’ read Marca's article headline on the forward’s recent injury and goalscoring struggles, despite Chelsea struggling to find a regular goalscoring centre-forward ever since his departure.
Kalinic, Lemar and Martins add depth to the duo of Griezmann and Costa and the new wingers’ former clubs are similarly suffering from their departures. Monaco are languishing in 19th under Thierry Henry at the helm, while Sporting Lisbon looked toothless in attack in their Europa League fixtures against Arsenal.
That leaves Griezmann and his first appearance against Barcelona since the decision to reject the Catalans’ advances in the summer for not wanting to be ‘Lionel Messi’s lieutenant’.
Had Griezmann been returning to the Wanda in the red and blue of Barcelona, he would likely have played a side-role to Messi given the 31-year-old’s record against the red and whites of 28 goals in the 19 league games he has played against them.
This is not the only goalscoring chart that Messi will dominate against an individual side, and despite Luis Suarez’s best efforts this season, Barcelona’s success does seemingly hinge on the presence of the Argentine.
Ousmane Dembele’s theatrics and Malcom’s failure to settle at the Camp Nou have added further setbacks, while Arturo Vidal has been frustrated by a lack of game time after regularly featuring at Bayern Munich.
So while Messi and Suarez have both dazzled this season to drive the leaders to 34 goals for the season, depth and collective team effort has kept Atletico under the radar but very much in the hunt for Spain’s greatest national prize.
“I’m a traditionalist, as long as I win, I don’t care about the way it came about. Atletico have won many titles in recent years but it’s not one of the more fun teams,” Atletico club legend Juan Carlos Pedraza told Marca.
Nonetheless, they may be on the way to another one, and if the summer signings bed in, there could be some enjoyment along the way too.
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