Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
The teams of FC Barcelona and Athletico Madrid made a 1:1 draw in a game of the ¼ finals of the Champions League, played on Camp Nou in Barcelona on Tuesday, April 1st. Diego opened the score for Athletico in the 56th minute after a phenomenal shot from over 30yards out, and Neymar equalized in the 71st minute for Barcelona. The home team had a complete territorial dominance throughout the whole game, especially in the last 20 minutes of the game. The “blaugranas” were attacking so furiously and without stopping that the visitors from Madrid barely managed to get out of their 18-yard box in the last 20 minutes of the game. FC Barcelona’s super-star player, Lionel Messi, didn’t play the usual “key” role in the game and couldn’t help his team to get this important win. The 2nd leg will be played this Wednesday, April 9th in Madrid. As of right now the current leader in Spanish La Liga, Athletico Madrid is in the better situation before the 2nd leg due to the away goal they managed to score at Camp Nou last week. If they manage to keep Barca from scoring they will be enjoying their first ½ final in the Champions league in recent years. The bad news for both teams: before the game on Wednesday were the injuries of “key” players like Gerard Pique for Barcelona and Diego Costa for Athletico, who suffered injuries in the first leg. The injuries are not major ones, but will probably be enough to keep them from playing in the 2nd leg of this derby.
The whole first half went back and forth with a tremendously attacking football displayed by both teams. In the beginning minutes of the game, Athletico was much more organized and created a couple of good chances in the 2nd minute, after a 20 yard shot by David Villa, and in the 5th minute when Villa again received a great ball by Arda Turan at the penalty mark but failed to put the ball in the back of the net. The first goal scoring chance for FC Barcelona came in the 7th minute when, after a free kick from 19 yards out, Messi shot at the wall. Up until the rest of the first half the home team was the more “dangerous” one creating more opportunities to score, but not succeeding in either of them. Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Andres Iniesta were the ones with the clearest chances to score. In the beginning minutes of the 2nd half it looked like FC Barcelona had the initiative and was close to score on couple of time in the 49th and 53rd minutes. However, in the 56th minute the substitution that came on for the injured Diego Costa, also called Diego, scored an outstanding goal from around 30 yards out, which absolutely shocked everyone. The home team managed to equalized almost 20 minutes later in the 74th minute after an incredible through ball from Iniesta to Neymar. The young Brazilian skillfully placed the ball in the diagonal end of the goal. As we already mentioned right after they equalized, Barca became more aggressive and were looking for the winning goal for the last 20 minutes of the game. Neither of the teams managed to take the win and the 1:1 draw held until the end.
This was the 4th time this season where FC Barcelona and Athletico Madrid couldn’t beat each other and ended up with a draw.
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