Atlético 4, Barça 3, a.k.a. “asdjkf NO WAY!”

Now it’s MY turn to write one of these posts. If you can’t stomach the rambling of an excessively excited Atlético fan, then click on that Kickette shortcut on your browser and turn back right now.

Not only did we defeat a great team, but we shocked them and shot them down from the stars for the time being. There hasn’t been one moment this season where Barcelona pulled off 3 goals from Henry and Messi magic, and were still caught up to and eventually brought down to the end. I know for a fact that they’ve had a few comebacks this season, with lots of final goals by Messi, but Barca fans are shocked because this hasn’t happened to them in a looooong time. How does it feel?

ATLETICO 4 – BARCA 3

From the beginning, I didn’t expect too much from Atlético only because I didn’t believe in Resino’s tactics and because it was a match against Barça. I became more confident when Atleti scored two goals in the first few minutes which were unfairly stolen from us (the first one was a more obvious offside, the second was legit). My heart dropped when Henry scored that sensational one-touch goal, and I thought “not again…”. Lo and behold, Messi “does it again” and shredded through our defense like nothing, and slotted the ball in like a pro.

The first “oh my god what the f*ck” moment of the match came two minutes after Messi’s goal, when Forlan blasted the ball from 32 meters away and Victor Valdes couldn’t even reach it. A true golazo and some people still had hope. I don’t know what Resino told the squad at half time, but obviously it WORKED. He probably pulled a Harry Redknapp and told Aguero to “f*cking run about” and after f*cking running about, he slotted a goal to make it 2-2 in the 55th minute.

Things went back to “aww dammit” when Gudjohnsen assisted Henry for an easy tap-in that he thought too hard about. Henry would have been man of the match, but then he brought down his fellow countryman Sinama a few minutes later (they were within a horde of players and Henry lost his balance) and after 2 minutes of “is it a penalty or not?” it was definitely a penalty, and Forlan definitely slotted it in. 3-3.

I expected Leo Messi to score a sublime goal from out of the box to make the score 3-4, but it was actually the opposite. Thanks to Puyol’s inability to control the ball, he laid the ball out for Kun Aguero to put it past Victor Valdes. And he did, it was 4-3 and Barcelona had some decent chances in the dying minutes but it wasn’t enough.

Just like that, the match was over and both sets of fans couldn’t believe what just happened.

The reason Atlético didn’t lose was because they weren’t afraid of Barcelona. They didn’t sit back and think “they scored 3 great goals, we have no chance because they’ll score another”. No. They pushed and pushed the ball forward and went for victory, probably attempting to make up for the cancelled goals in the beginning (and Forlan’s amazing miss). Anything can happen in football, and the best team of a match isn’t always the one with Messi scoring and Thierry fucking Henry scoring two wonder goals (how can some of you guys be spoiled enough to have wanted to sell him?).

This is the best possible confidence boost for Atlético, who visit the “Evil Empire” in the always bat shit insane Madrid derby, and then visit Porto to finalize entry to the quarterfinals. Whether we will win or lose those matches, I’ll analyze that when my mind is clear from this fantastic match.

If I paid enough attention to every individual player (and if my stream didn’t suck so bad, thanks Tajh from the Barcelona Offside comments for providing a good link which I used after my stream died), I would give player ratings. Let’s just the team a 10 for effort and Resino a 10 for hitting the players in the right spot during his team talk. Kun Aguero gets a 12 for being way too good. Forlan gets a 10 for also trying his balls off, actually…. let’s give him an 11 for having really cool long hair.

Credit to both players who were equally as important in this victory.

Thankfully, Valencia is sucking it up and Villarreal drew again. That makes it 3 points from 4th place, which is no impossible task to achieve. Can we do it? In the words of puppet Jose Mourinho, “why not”. Let’s make this a new start and hopefully we bring the same perseverance to the Bernabeu next weekend.

P.S. In no way was this post intended to be an “in your face” to Barcelona fans. Barca still has the better season than us, but to shock the best team in Spain deserves a worthy post.

P.P.S. For those Barcelona fans that made themselves at home here during the match, I’ll make the drinks on my table more alcoholic next time and I promise that this time, that mysterious lady won’t walk around again anymore. Sorry!

P.P.P.S. Sorry about the post title, nothing else was more fitting, even if it’s a rip-off of Kevin’s post titles

Aupa Atleti! And Barça, you’ll bounce back.

Category: Review