Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid: 3 reasons why Barcelona won | LaLiga 2018/19
Barcelona and Atletico Madrid locked horns at the Camp Nou on Matchday 31 of LaLiga. In a potential title decider, Barcelona came with an 8 point lead in hand ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid. Ernesto Valverde started with his strongest available 11 with Sergi Roberto on the right-back spot and Philippe Coutinho on the left-wing. Atleti started in a 4-4-2 with Griezmann and Costa up front.
The tie was in a deadlock until the 85th minute when Luis Suarez breathed life in the game. A minute later Lionel Messi netted his 33rd LaLiga goal this season to make the score 2-0.
With the loss, Atleti has to climb an 11 point deficit with only 7 games to go. Diego Simeone is yet to beat Barcelona in the league. The Blaugrana will next face Manchester United mid-week in the Champions League, with the league almost wrapped up.
Here are 3 reasons why the Blaugrana won against the Rojiblancos.
#3 Diego Costa's early sending off
The game started off on a really high tempo. Both teams were going at their opponent's goals with the intent to score early. It was an end to end stuff and great to watch from a neutral perspective. Barcelona threatened Atleti early with Alba hitting the post and Coutinho failing to finish 1v1 against Oblak.
Then came the plot twist. Diego Costa in a jostle with Arthur clearly elbowed the midfielder and the referee pulled him up for the challenge. At first, Gil Manzano was going for a yellow card which was the obvious choice but then he turned to his other pocket and showed Costa a straight red. The Atleti players surrounded the referee in a heated war of words and Atleti should consider themselves lucky that no other player was sent off.
Till that point, Atleti had their plans set and were at least trying to threaten the Barcelona rear guard. But surprisingly, the 10 men didn't hold back and continued to show resilience whenever they needed to.
Diego Costa clearly betrayed his team in a high tension game. Without Costa, Atleti were a man down and had to run around more and had fewer men to target up front. They were stretched across the pitch by Barcelona and they were completely exhausted as well.
If Costa was present on the pitch things could have been much different but it is what it is now.
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