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In some style, Barcelona landed a crucial victory over Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday evening, with Joao Felix dealing another blow to his parent club in the 38th minute, Robert Lewandowski extending his team’s lead in the 47th, and Fermin Lopez setting the final score in the 65th.
And just as it seemed Atletico’s evening could not have gone worse, right at the end, Nahuel Molina earned a straight red card for an obvious foul on Vitor Roque, which he committed deliberately as the last man in defence to prevent a fourth goal for the visitors.
On the other hand, Barcelona also had a red card shown but to head coach Xavi Hernandez in the 42nd minute, for dissent.
The game
Interestingly enough, Atletico opened the game well and were arguably the better team for the first half an hour. They came really close to breaking the deadlock after less than seven minutes, as Rodrigo de Paul pounced on a loose pass from Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and employed Pablo Barrios, whose effort from just outside the box missed the top corner by a few inches. Alvaro Morata also had a good chance in the 22nd minute, but Pau Cubarsi, the Barcelona centre-back who turned 17 two months ago, prevented him from scoring.
Barcelona took the lead from practically the first real chance they had. It was Lewandowski who pulled out wide before squaring it for Felix, and the Atletico loanee had no difficulty in putting it into the back of the net from around six yards, much to the annoyance of the home fans.
Even though his teammates encouraged him to celebrate, Felix didn’t seem too keen, but it did nothing to calm the crowd in the stands of the Wanda Metropolitano.
Morata had another chance to equalize two minutes before the break, but his volley from just inside the box went over the bar.
Lewandowski doubled Barcelona’s lead two minutes after the restart with a fantastic finish, worthy of such a proven goalscorer. Atletico came…
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Author : Veselin Trajkovic
Publish date : 2024-03-18 18:27:48
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