Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
If you’d been asked to guess which one of the three Spanish sides would have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals after the first leg of the quarters, you wouldn’t have gone for Atlético de Madrid.
Two tight matches showed that games of this size are won by the most minute margins. You lose if one element is missing or a small weakness is displayed at this level.
Diego Simeone’s team is the best-positioned to progress because they gave the most complete performance. The Argentinian’s gamble was to preserve players during the La Liga game against Barcelona. The Argentinian gambled, losing three points in the La Liga match up with Barcelona over the weekend.
As his team is ranked fourth in the table, the coach has been under fire. The coach has achieved his peak in cup competitions, as his team reached the Copa del Rey Final and now have a two goal advantage going into the second quarter final next week.
As he considers his options to reach his third Champions League Final, he will celebrate quietly his first victory at the Camp Nou. He can rest some players this weekend as a title win is not in their reach and they are assured of a top-four finish.
Hansi Flick, his Barcelona counterpart is reflecting. An unfortunate red card for youngster Pau Cubarsí left them a player light and the resulting free kick was punished by Julián Álvarez with a goal worthy of the occasion.
The odds are stacked against Barça with the loss of Cubarsi and the injured Raphinha. The Brazilian is one of the most talented players in world football and would leave an enormous hole in any team. His replacement Marcus Rashford was one of the more impressive players but collectively they fell short of a disciplined Atléti.
Real Madrid, despite being slightly more equipped than Bayern Munich, trail the Bavarians by a single goal after an abysmal performance at Bernabeu. Alvaro Arbeloa suffered his sixth defeat in 19 games. It was the same as Xabi Alono’s 34 defeats in his last season.
The rookie is still learning. The lesson this week is to use your best players for the big games. It was admirable of him to have stuck with Thiago Pitach, who has developed into a future talent. Jude Bellingham’s energy was needed in the present. The Englishman inspired a late return that saved face when he was introduced.
Bayern dominated the game right from the start, and it appeared that the players did not buy into Arbeloa’s plan. When reality struck, they appeared to accept responsibility for their own actions.
It comes down to the fine margins. It is better to play to your strengths than to allow weaknesses to be exploited. Arbeloa picked Trent Alexander Arnold over defensive Dan Carvajal, because Thibaut courtois was injured.
Simeone has his sights set on reaching his third Champions League final, and Barcelona is fighting against the odds.
