Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid(1-0) 2018 | Messi decides the League?

Barcelona hosted Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou on 4-3-2018. Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid was never thought to be a decisive encounter in the title race at the beginning of the season. The wildest anyone would have thought was this match will help Real Madrid. To the contrary Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid was decisive for title race but only for Barca and Atletico as Real Madrid is nowhere near the title picture. The match ended with a 1-0 victory for Barcelona with a magical free kick from no other than Lionel Messi. Now Barcelona can concentrate on the Champions League and work hard to progress to the next round. While Atletico will still think they can do good this season. With that in mind here are few talking points of Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid.

Talking points Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid (1-0)

5) Andres Iniesta limping off

In the 36th minute Andres Iniesta was subbed off. This happened due some sort of harmstering problem. It is a big worry for any Barca faithful, as they know the importance of Iniesta to this team. He was looking sharp for the 36 minutes he played. With the Chelsea home game fast approaching, Barcelona will be hoping that their captain gets fully fit as they need him more in Champions League, than Laliga. For now on until the very end of the season, Initesta needs to play in an intelligent and less stressful way. Valverde needs to give him ample rest and use him in the Champions League rather than the League. On the bright side, if Iniesta plays the way he played for the 36 minutes against Atletico , Barcelona will smell the Champions League final.

4) Misery continues for Gomes at Barcelona

Andre Gomes arrived at New Camp for a whopping €35 million. Since then he has not been able to justify his value to the team. He looks like a player who is still not been able to adapt to the team. The Barcelona fans made it pretty clear in the match that they don't like him with their boos. The problem with Gomes is not explainable. He truly is a technically sound player, but not able to show his trait at Barcelona. The fact that Valverde chooses him regularly means that he also sees something in him, or he is just making him play so that they can get some money out of him when they sell him. Only time will tell. He is a man on low confidence and boos from own fans is not helping him. Barcelona and it's fan might need to show him some love so that he can regain some sort of confidence.

3) No sort of fire from Atletico in attack

The main reason, why Barcelona won the game was Atletico's attack. They registered just one shot on target throughout the match. The fact that the lethal pairing of Antoine Griezmann and Diego Costa was not able to break a much improved Barcelona defence was the highlight of Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid. Samuel Umtiti along with Gerard Pique were rock solid to nullify both Griezmann and Costa. This is the testament to Valverde, as he has made Barcelona's questionable defence into a brick wall. But this can't be an excuse to Atletico's lack of attack at Barcelona's goal. They usually follow a simple plan against Barcelona and this is to hit them on set pieces and counter attack. Even after going 1-0 down they did not show any clear ideas against Barcelona's defense. 

2) Barcelona can smell the league

This match was very crucial for Barcelona. They needed this win to get a 8 points lead over Atletico Madrid. They just did that and have nearly won the league. With 11 matches left, out of which 6 are at home. Out of the 5 away trips , 3 are against relegation battling teams it surely looks game,set and match for the title. The 8 points lead was very crucial for Barcelona as not only it will help them relax and concentrate on the Champions League, but also rest key players for big games. The 36th match of the league is against Madrid and Barcelona will love nothing more than Madrid giving the guard of honor. Barcelona can only blame themselves if they lose the title from this point onward. This is a turn around not even the most loyalist Barcelona fans would have thought after the Spanish Super Copa thrashing at the hands of Real Madrid.

1) A title gifted to Barcelona by Lionel Messi

Every title that Barcelona has won, is considered to be because of Messi. This season however the League is definitely going to Barcelona, because of Lionel Messi. He has been the constant difference for Barcelona this season. With 24 goals and further 12 assists he his leading both the goals and assists tally in the league. He has been the player this season either to break the deadlock for Barcelona or scoring match winning goal. Against Atletico again he was the difference maker. He scored his 3rd consecutive freekick to give Barcelona the lead and match winning goal. He is the alpha of the team and truly the best player in the world at this moment. He might just cherish this league title more than ever as it will literally be a title that Lionel Messi has gifted to Barcelona.

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