UEFA Champions League
Barcelona 0 – 2 Atletico Madrid FT
Atletico Madrid took an enormous step in the direction of reaching the Champions League semi-finals as they claimed a powerful win at 10-man Barcelona.
The guests had not received on the Nou Camp since 2006 earlier than Wednesday however targets in both half by Julian Alvarez and Alexander Sorloth secured the win within the first-leg of their quarter-final tie.
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Barcelona had been the higher aspect for a lot of the sport however a foul on Giuliano Simeone by Pau Cubarsi simply earlier than half-time proved pivotal.
The defender was initially proven a yellow card by referee Istvan Kovacs after sending Simeone flying as he broke by means of one-on-one, however that was modified to a crimson card when Kovacs was requested by the video assistant referee to assessment the incident on the pitchside monitor.
Alvarez then compounded Barcelona’s distress by fantastically sending the free-kick past the goalkeeper’s attain and into the again of the online.
To Barcelona’s credit score, they responded properly to going a person down and dominated the second half, with Marcus Rashford going closest to equalising when he hit the crossbar from a free-kick.
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However as an alternative, they had been dealt an extra blow when Atletico grabbed a second, Alexander Sorloth sweeping residence from Matteo Ruggeri’s low cross.
The defeat leaves Barcelona with all of it to do after they journey to Madrid within the second leg subsequent Tuesday.
Barcelona pay the worth for profligacy
Barcelona can have gone into this sport totally assured of getting a win, given their latest outcomes.
They’d received eight and drawn one among their earlier 9 video games in all competitions, with their final outing earlier than Wednesday seeing them win 2-1 at Atletico Madrid in La Liga.
They definitely had probabilities to proceed the momentum on this sport as they’d 24 makes an attempt on aim, with the vigorous Rashford seeing a few efforts saved in addition to having a strike chalked off after Lamine Yamal was dominated offside.
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Yamal was uncharacteristically quiet, however finally it was these couple of minutes simply earlier than the break when Cubarsi was despatched off and Alvarez scored that proved decisive.
That allowed Atletico to sit down off Barcelona and keep away from taking any dangers as they completed the sport with simply three photographs on track, however in distinction to Barcelona they had been scientific with these, scoring from two of them.
Atletico have eradicated Barcelona in each of their earlier Champions League knockout ties and whereas Hansi Flick’s aspect will draw confidence from their latest win in Madrid, they may should be at their best to show this tie round.