Barcelona 2-3 Atletico Madrid: 4 reasons why the Catalans lost the match | Spanish Super Cup 2019-20
The semifinal of the first edition of the revamped four-team Spanish Super Cup has been rounded up, with Atletico Madrid dispatching Barcelona in a whirlwind five-goal thriller.
The capital club were in the tournament by virtue of their second-place finish last season, while Barcelona came in as league champions and overwhelming favourites.
The fact that the Catalans won the latest fixture between the pair in December only served to strengthen Barcelona's claim but despite falling behind, Atletico Madrid rallied to register a first victory in four years over the Blaugrana.
They had gone ahead thirty seconds into the second half through Koke but quickfire goals by Lionel Messi and former star Antoine Griezmann gave Ernesto Valverde's men the lead. Alvaro Morata levelled matters from the penalty spot and Angel Correa scored a late winner to send Atletico Madrid through to the final where they will face city rivals Real Madrid.
In this piece, we shall be highlighting four reasons why Barcelona fell to defeat against Atletico Madrid.
#4 The Catalans failed to take advantage of their chances
Few teams can outplay Barcelona, owing to the superior quality of their players and this much was evident against Atletico Madrid.
The first half saw the LaLiga champions control a whopping 75% of the possession, although they were unable to fashion clear-cut chances despite their superiority.
It was pretty much more of the same for Barcelona in the second half and when Antoine Griezmann put them 2-1 up in the 61st minute, there seemed to be only one way that the pendulum could swing.
Their front three were in tandem and conjured numerous chances, with Jan Oblak standing in their way on many occasions, although they beat him twice only to see the goals chalked off by VAR.
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez had nine shots at goal between them (more than Atletico Madrid had as a team) but whereas Los Colchoneros took advantage of their few chances, their opponents were more wasteful on the night.
When sides fail to make the most of their chances against a quality side like Atleti, they are mostly asking for trouble and that happened to be the case when Vitolo won a penalty against the run of play in the 80th minute and five minutes later, Angel Correa made Barcelona pay for their frivolity when he scored his fourth goal of the campaign.