“I’ve given my life to this club, but I won’t be made a scapegoat!” Joan García reportedly EXPLODES in Barcelona dressing room after being blamed for first and second goal. He issues a brutal ultimatum: support me or I leave by Saturday.
Barcelona endured what can be considered their most embarrassing loss during Hansi Flick’s tenure as manager on Thursday evening, a performance that deserves to be recognized as their poorest showing in more than twelve months.
Stepping onto the pitch at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium, the Catalan side displayed virtually no attacking menace whatsoever and were thoroughly dominated defensively by Atletico Madrid throughout the encounter.
An own goal conceded in the opening stages created a comfortable scenario for the home team, but they went on to thoroughly deserve their commanding 4-0 advantage by the interval, leaving Barcelona utterly humiliated.
The second half brought no improvement in Barcelona’s fortunes apart from VAR becoming a central figure in the proceedings by ruling out a Barcelona goal, and the Blaugrana now face an enormous challenge when the teams meet again for the return leg.
Barça Universal provides you with the individual player ratings from the Atletico Madrid 4-0 Barcelona match.
Joan Garcia: 3
The shot-stopper experienced his first major blunder while wearing the Barcelona jersey as he struggled significantly with his decision-making abilities and found himself overwhelmed by Atletico Madrid’s aggressive pressing tactics.
He initiated the collapse with an inexcusable own goal and bore no responsibility for preventing any of the subsequent goals that followed.
Alejandro Balde: 2.5
The left-sided defender was continuously exploited and made to look inadequate throughout the evening as virtually all of Atletico Madrid’s offensive moves appeared to originate from his side of the pitch with the defender consistently absent from his position.
He proved completely unable to cope with Giuliano Simeone’s velocity and the opposition’s counterattacking strategy, essentially providing them with an unobstructed path to advance into Barcelona’s penalty area and generate dangerous opportunities.
Pau Cubarsi: 3
The young defender began to unravel mentally after the opposition netted their opening goal of the match and his display deteriorated progressively as he appeared completely clueless about how to disrupt Atletico’s obvious tactical approach.
He was unable to execute the offside trap with any effectiveness and lacked the necessary speed to recover defensively and maintain pace with the rapid wide attackers. He managed to put the ball in the net for what would have been the team’s opening goal early in the second period, only for it to be disallowed due to a ridiculous offside decision.
Eric Garcia: 2.5
Eric will not be available for the second leg. (Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)
Garcia, who has been among Barcelona’s most reliable performers throughout this campaign, also experienced an absolute nightmare of a match where he was simply incapable of structuring the team’s defensive organization.
He was officially credited with scoring the own goal and accepted responsibility from Garcia, but demonstrated no understanding of how to stop Atletico Madrid’s build-up play and their delivery of crosses throughout the match.
He received his marching orders near the conclusion of the game for a needless challenge.
Jules Kounde: 4
Kounde’s personal performance represented perhaps his worst display of the entire season, but unusually for him, he wasn’t the sole player performing catastrophically in the defensive line on this particular evening.
He allowed the ball to pass through his legs for Atletico Madrid’s second strike and was completely outmatched by Ademola Lookman for their third goal. He ought to have performed better in attempting to stop Julian Alvarez at the conclusion of the opening period as well but was simply unable to provide any meaningful resistance.
Marc Casado: 2.5
Casado was substituted off the pitch halfway through the opening half, culminating in a dreadful evening for the midfielder, but the reality is that any one of the starting eleven players could have been withdrawn at that particular moment and there would have been legitimate justification for the decision.
He picked up an important yellow card caution while preventing Atletico Madrid from having another clear scoring opportunity, but his passing accuracy and decision-making throughout were significantly below his usual standards.
Frenkie de Jong: 5
The team captain made his return to the starting lineup with hopes of providing stability and control to Barcelona’s midfield area, but what he actually managed to deliver was far from that objective. His distribution and passing were superior to his teammates who were battling with the uneven playing surface conditions, but nothing particularly impressive or noteworthy.
Dani Olmo: 4.5
Olmo found it difficult to operate effectively in the congested areas of the pitch and struggled to adapt to the field conditions, ultimately failing to generate much attacking danger in the available pockets of space. He did manage to create several opportunities through important penetrating passes, though none of these materialized into significant scoring chances.
From a defensive standpoint, his performance was substandard like the remainder of the squad and he failed to provide adequate work rate when the team didn’t have possession of the ball.
Fermin Lopez: 5.5
Lopez arguably created the two finest scoring opportunities during the opening forty-five minutes, first with a volleyed effort that connected with the crossbar and secondly with a well-weighted through pass that he was unable to reach at the crucial moment.
Beyond those two particular instances, however, he experienced a remarkably quiet evening in terms of both offensive contributions and defensive responsibilities with virtually nothing to demonstrate as meaningful contributions to the team’s cause.
Lamine Yamal: 4.5
Not even Yamal could save Barcelona’s blushes. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
The teenage sensation was arguably the individual who encountered the greatest difficulties dealing with the playing surface, losing his footing seemingly each and every time he received possession of the ball.
He failed to display his characteristic creativity during the first half of the match, found it challenging to successfully complete his dribbling attempts and was consistently marked by two defenders for the majority of the contest.
Ferran Torres: 3.5
The Spanish forward had absolutely nothing to contribute during the opening period, neither through his defensive commitment nor his attacking movements and positioning.
He was practically invisible throughout most of the match, heavily covered and restricted by Atletico Madrid’s organized and compact defensive structure, and was unable to discover any available spaces to exploit and break free from his markers.
Robert Lewandowski: 3.5
Lewandowski was introduced as a replacement player early in the first half following the team’s concession of three goals, with the intention of adding more attacking potency and firepower to the lineup, but his introduction to the match failed to contribute significantly to a team that was already experiencing tremendous difficulty in creating genuine scoring opportunities.
