JORDI ALBA SCORED an extraordinary volley and Dani Alves was sent off as Barcelona delivered a major boost to their hopes of finishing in La Liga’s top four on Sunday by winning a six-goal thriller against Atletico Madrid 4-2.
Real Madrid then capitalised on Sevilla’s goalless draw with Osasuna on Saturday by edging past Granada 1-0 to extend their lead at the top of the table to a daunting six points.
In the absence of the injured Karim Benzema, Marco Asensio finally broke Granada’s resistance in the 74th minute at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Barcelona were more emphatic as they scored four in 40 minutes at Camp Nou before surviving a late fightback from Atletico after Luis Suarez headed in and Alves saw red with 20 minutes left.
A statement victory returns Xavi Hernandez’s side into the top four for the first time since September, with Atletico now two points behind in fifth.
“The team, the fans and the club in general needed a win like this,” said Xavi. “It could be a turning point, we can’t hold back now.”
Atletico coach Diego Simeone said: “If we took advantage of our opportunities everyone would be saying how good our counter-attack was. Their effectiveness has prevailed today.”
Atletico took an early lead through Yannick Carrasco but Barcelona came storming back, Alba equalising with surely one of the goals of the season before Gavi, Ronald Araujo and Alves all struck to leave Simeone’s side facing an annihilation.
Instead, Suarez headed in and Alves was sent off as tempers flared. But Barcelona held on, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, signed from Arsenal, coming on off the bench to make his debut in the second half.
With Barcelona in containment mode, Aubameyang’s influence was limited and it was another January signing, Adama Traore, who made the biggest impact with an electric first-half performance.
Barca were ninth in the league, six points behind Atletico in fourth, when Xavi was appointed coach.
WHAT A GOAL BY JORDI ALBA!!! pic.twitter.com/T7vvB8WdHE
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) February 6, 2022
Aubameyang was only deemed fit enough for the bench, where he sat along with Ousmane Dembele, who Xavi welcomed back into the fold despite his ongoing stand-off with the club over a new contract.
Dembele was whistled before kick-off and not brought on in the second half.
“I was going to bring him on but the situation changed after the red card,” Xavi said.
- Traore in full flow -
Atletico were ahead on eight minutes but the rest of the first half belonged to Barca.
Traore was at the heart of it, making the game his own for a whirlwind half an hour.
He was involved in Alba’s equaliser, his cross poked out to Alves, who floated the ball to the opposite side, where Alba had time to adjust his feet and let fly with a stunning volley into the top corner.
Barcelona were on top and Traore in full flow. He stopped Mario Hermoso, then surged past him, lifting a cross off the line and into the area where Gavi headed in a second.
Araujo smashed in before half-time and Alves added a fourth four minutes after, arrowing in Gavi’s cut-back before posing with his arms outstretched towards the fans.
The party atmosphere fizzled slightly when Suarez reduced the gap to two by heading in from close range against his former club.
Aubameyang briefly broke the tension by coming on to rapturous applause for Traore but Alves was then sent off after scraping his studs down the back of Carrasco’s leg.
Atletico had 20 minutes to score two and the game almost boiled over when Xavi’s assistant Oscar Hernandez was shown a red card for his protests and Xavi took a yellow. Barcelona held on.
Granada looked like they might hold on against Real Madrid, who were without their deadly attacking duo, Vinicius Junior suspended and Benzema still recovering from a thigh strain.
Isco and Rodrygo started up front instead but were replaced by Luka Jovic and Eden Hazard shortly before Asensio struck, a superb, swerving shot finding the corner after Eder Militao had won the ball back.
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Very easy to blame a few mistakes when in truth the individuals and the system were terrible. Ireland don’t have an offload/continuity game yet that’s what we tried from the first ball against the best team in the world. We didn’t help ourselves with poor kicking and cheap turnovers but to not mention the coaches and tactics in this analysis is very short-sighted
@Mark Dooley: players largely to blame for basic errors. Coaching staff have to take blame for selection of non form & rusty players and for lack of variety to our game since our the win v all blacks. It was a chance for them to throw caution to the wind and start the with at the least Beirne, ruddock & larmour.
Good analysis Murray
@Mark Dooley: this excellent analysis clear shows that the team was well set up tactically as we were creating space but basic errors by players meant we failed to take advantage of those opportunities. In fact we turned the ball over and handed advantage to NZ. Once again an Irish team has not turned up for a World Cup. That for me is a mental issue that we need to face up to and overcome. Blaming coaches, injuries etc only avoiding the truth and the real issue. Interesting to hear Schmidt say they started focusing on this QTR final end last year, just before their form went to shit.
@Mark Dooley: Excellent analysis by Murray. I disagree with you blaming the coaches & tactics. Uncharacteristic errors, missed kicks & missed tackles by players cost us dearly plus NZ were ruthlessly clinical imho.
@David Supple: coaches responsible for selecting out of form players based on what they have done in the past. Kearney in particular was a pick to try and not lose a game rather than win one as he offers nothing in attack. All you gave to do is look at the abs selection policy for 15 and it is almost always a try scoring machine and the rawness of the two wings to see what proactive selection looks like.
It will be interesting to see what a defensive coach in Farrell. thinks or does with Stockdale. His instinct is to go for the interception and he bites quite a bite. When it works it’s fantastic but when it doesn’t it’s at least 3 points.
I’m not singling our Stockdale but more how our new coach sees it.
Why in this article and others are teams lauded for being able to catch and pass the ball, these players are playing rugby 5 days a week why do we think catch pass is so special, is it because Ireland are so bad at it? Its been killing Munster for 10 years when will we wake up to the basic skills required????
The muppets in the crowd should have shut up and respected the haka. Those clowns over there are just bandwagon jumpers.
@munsterman: Totally disagree, it should be shown as much respect that it deserves and that is f£¥k all!
@munsterman: stupid comment. Had nothing to do with anything