Atletico Madrid continued to wow the world with their performance as they have over the years as they completely stifled and beat into submission a Barcelona side which boasts the best attacking players on the planet.
On a fateful night at the Vicente Calderon, Atletico made a stern statement by restricting the free-flowing Barcelona attack to producing embers instead of blazing away with the game. They also won the tie somewhat spectacularly with Antoine Griezmann underlining the game with a fantastic brace to his name.
Let us look at some of the game’s talking points:
#1 Antoine Griezmann’s star turn
There can be little doubt left as to the quality of Antoine Griezmann. The Frenchman is having a fine year which could be capped with Champions League glory as Diego Simeone proudly announced after the result on the night that winning the tournament was Atletico’s only outlook.
Having buried Barcelona with a fine brace, Antoine Griezmann will have the whole world looking at him expectantly over the years by the look of things as he keeps on building his stock with each and every game.
All of Europe will already have his eyes on him as he looks set to lead the French National Team’s hopes at the Euros after it was confirmed Karim Benzema would not play a part in the tournament.
On a run of ten goals in his last ten games, the Frenchman has recorded a figure of 29 goals and 5 assists in a sum total of 45 appearances in this season. With the goals against a top team in a crunch tie like the Champions League quarter-finals, however, Antoine Griezmann has indeed announced himself as an elite player.
#2 Barcelona’s season on the verge of derailment?
It makes for grim reading if you’ve just been dumped out of the UEFA Champions League but if you’ve had as spectacular a blip in form as Barcelona have had right now, you’d be really worried as a fan.
Barcelona have set records tumbling this season with unbeaten runs and goals flowing like water from a waterfall. However, right at the business end of the season, things may seem ready to go out of their hands.
A recent set of results has seen the La Liga title race being blown wide open with the team that just dumped them out of the Champions League, i.e. Atletico Madrid hot on their heels in the La Liga table. Atletico are three points behind Barcelona with 6 games to go. Should Barcelona slip up again in a league game, that would throw their La Liga title run into serious doubt.
With the Copa Del Rey also in their competition list, Barcelona could be two or three poor results away from their season completely collapsing on its head.
#3 Atletico Madrid: Favorites for the UCL?
Barcelona were, before this night, the favorites to retain their UEFA Champions League but a clinical performance from Diego Simeone’s men put paid to that. The question here is, does that make Atletico the new favorites for the Champions League?
Diego Simeone himself believes that Atletico have no other thought in their minds but to win the tournament. Having dismantled the threat of Barcelona in the tie, Diego wasted no time in raising a war cry to his players that this was indeed their year and they should be lifting the trophy.
While Cholo’s sentiments are echoed by a world of neutrals, it seems plain visible that Atletico have a tough task ahead of them. Set to be drawn against one of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Cholo’s men still have to brave some of the best in Europe to lay their hands on the title.
The chief hurdle to their Champions League burst will be Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich whom Atletico will do well to avoid before the Final. However, right now Atletico seem capable of just about toppling anyone in front of them.
#4 Lionel Messi’s poor form
This is a matter of concern for Luis Enrique’s side if there was any for the Barcelona side. Lionel Messi continues to be the one player whose form directly impacts the Barcelona swagger. On the night, Lionel Messi could hardly put one over Atletico as hard as he tried to. Granted Atletico are a team whose prowess is rare, but Leo has had his form dipping for a while now.
He now has spent 452 minutes without a goal for the Catalan side, his worst run for six years, the last being a run of 527 minutes which ended in 2010. His last goal before this run was against Arsenal in the round of 16.
While it doesn’t concern Leo if he doesn’t score but what will bother him is that it has now coincided with a poor run of results for Barcelona as well. Neymar is evidently not capable of taking burden in crunch ties if his team mates fail to perform as was evident on the night and Luis Suarez too had a rare off day this game, which Luis Enrique will hope doesn’t continue in the days to come.
Lionel Messi needs to overcome his blip in form or someone needs to step up considering how close we are to the season end now.
#5 Diego Godin: The Best defender on the planet?
It might seem absurd to raise someone to the title of best on the planet on the back of one game, but what do you do when the fellow’s just stifled the single greatest attack force in the last decade?
None of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi or Neymar Jr. could put the Uruguayan out of his stride on the night as Diego Godin produced one his best performances to subdue the much feared ‘MSN’ with relative ease and that too without the safety net of his usual partner or an experienced replacement for the injured partner.
It isn’t just this game either, Godin has been at it for the best part of 5 years now as the 30-year-old has been the heart and soul of Diego Simeone’s revolution at Atletico. Atletico boasts one of the best defenses in Europe and Diego Godin has been the centerpiece of that piece of outlook.
Perhaps it is time to discuss if he is indeed the best there is right now or if he isn’t, then that he is a Champions League final performance away from it. Considering everything, he isn’t that far off from either at the very least.
