Match date: 1 April 2014

The two Spanish sides are separated by just one point, with Atletico in first and Barcelona in second. In their first three meetings this season, two being in the Spanish Super Cup and the other in La Liga, neither side had managed to win a match and that trend continued in the first leg of their Champions League tie.

Tata Martino named Neymar in his starting XI as well as Fabregas and Iniesta, with Pinto filling in at goalkeeper after Valdes tore his ACL in Barcelona’s last La Liga match.

Diego Costa was selected by Diego Simeone despite failing to finish training the day before with an injury. Simeone also picked Tiago over Suarez to partner Gabi in the centre of midfield.

Atletico Madrid’s Midfield and the Wide Areas

Throughout the season and during Simeone’s time at Atletico, the midfield has been dynamic and fluid, namely the movements of Arda Turan and Koke. Their last Champions League match, against AC Milan, showcased the fluidity of Simeone and Atletico’s 4-4-2. Often Turan and Koke were on the same side of the pitch, creating overloads in the wide areas,  and opening the far side of the field for the full back to step into and prepare for a quick switch.

Against Barcelona, however, Atletico were much more rigid. Koke and Turan rarely ventured from their side of the pitch, with Koke on the left and Turan on the right, out of fear that if they drifted to the same side, the space that their movement opened up would be easily exploited by the typically adventurous play of Dani Alves and Jordi Alba.

It made Atletico’s pressing less focused and energetic than usual, but made the midfield more crowded. Atletico always look to force play into the wide areas with the two strikers, usually Diego Costa and one of David Villa and Raul Garcia, blocking off passing lanes into the centre of midfield, allowing Atletico to dictate the side to which the rest of the team can go press. They then shift the midfield over to win the ball back when the player under pressure looks to play the ball back inside to a teammate. Against Barcelona, with Koke and Turan staying on their side, they simply pinched inside to make a compact midfield four, which allowed Barcelona to play into the wide areas; so a slightly different approach, but one that yielded similar results as Barcelona were ineffective in the wide areas despite the time that they were afforded on the ball.

You can see above that Barcelona were successful with just four of their 27 attempted crosses, a rather poor return, but with little height from Messi and Neymar, up against Miranda, Godin, and Courtois, it was to be expected. Atletico seemed content in allowing Barcelona to cross at times, with that knowledge that it would be incredibly difficult for a Barcelona player to beat their players in the air to win any of the crosses. Messi and Neymar both had headers saved by Courtois, however.

Both Sides Press

One of the strengths of both of these sides is their ability to press the opposition high up the pitch. Barcelona were the best in the world at this under Pep Guardiola, although last year they were arguably overshadowed by the likes of Dortmund and, this year, Atletico Madrid. Straight away, as they have all season, Atletico looked to press Barcelona and dictate the spaces in which Barcelona could play, which, as mentioned above, was the wide areas, where Barcelona struggled to be effective given their opportunities. Below, is a shot of Atletico pressing Fabregas who just received a pass from Pinto. Fabregas played the ball back to Pinto, who had his next pass intercepted and David Villa was given the first half’s best chance to open the scoring at the end of the move.

While Barcelona were usually able to play quickly by Atletico’s first line of pressure, they played into the spaces that Atletico certainly wanted them to, as mentioned above. This allowed Atletico win a number of tackles within their own half, in the wide areas of the pitch, as they’ve done throughout the year.

There was a clear difference between the pressing of the two sides however, which can clearly be seen above based solely on where each side won their tackles. Barcelona’s hope in pressing is to win the ball back high up the pitch, close to the opposition’s goal, which they were certainly effective in doing against Atletico Madrid. The first objective of Atletico’s pressing, however, is to dictate what space the next pass is played into and if they are able to win the ball back in their first line of pressure, even better.

Barcelona’s pressing became much more effective after Diego Costa was forced out of the game through injury. They did not necessarily win the ball back in Atletico Madrid’s half, but they forced the Madrid side to play the ball long and without Diego Costa, they lacked a target man that could bring the ball down, hold it up, and bring others into play. David Villa offers good movement, but certainly isn’t the physical presence that Costa is and it was of little coincidence that when Costa had to be removed, barring Diego’s goal, that Barcelona were able to apply greater pressure on the Atletico Madrid goal.

Courtois

Goalkeepers usually don’t feature in these analyses, but Courtois’ performance was worthy of mention as he pulled off some very good saves to really keep his side in the tie. Atletico were able to get an away goal as a result of Diego’s audacious effort, but Courtois was able to keep the match at a draw as opposed to three or four for Barcelona once the Blaugrana were able to apply their intense pressure.

After the match, Marc Bartra, who played very well himself after coming on for Pique, said “We competed against a very competitive side and we had clear chances to make it 2-1 but, because of Courtois, we’re leaving with a draw.”

Changes

The early change of Diego on for Diego Costa for Atletico Madrid changed their shape slightly, with Diego played a bit behind David Villa. The biggest change in the match, however, was the introduction of Alexis Sanchez for Cesc Fabregas. Barcelona had dominated possession for most of the match and were able to put Atletico under an increasing amount of pressure due to the Madrid side being without Diego Costa to act as a target man to give their defense an outlet when under pressure, meaning the ball would come straight back more often than not. With Barcelona firmly in control, Tata Martino opted to bring on Sanchez to add more penetration and allow Iniesta to move back into a central midfield role and Neymar to his favoured left side of the pitch, both of whom were involved in Barcelona’s equalising goal from their new positions just minutes after Sanchez’s introduction.

Conclusion

The tie is still very much undecided. Both sides suffered injuries to what would be certain starters in the next leg; Barcelona lost Pique and Atletico lost Diego Costa to a thigh strain. Assuming Costa is unable to make a recovery, Atletico are certainly in a more difficult situation as Bartra was brought on for Pique and looked relatively situated at the back, whereas, without Costa, Atletico lack their best goal scorer and their most effective vertical outlet for their defense, which played into Barcelona’s hands this match and could do so next match.