Atlético Madrid, and Barcelona came out of last week’s Champions League matchups in a bad spot. Both of the teams lost their respective games, and currently find themselves on the outside looking in. Barcelona will likely be able to at least get a second chance at life in the Europa League, however not qualifying for the second round of the Champions League would certainly be a let down. Particularly taking into account the amount of money that’s been put into this team over the last few months.
For their part Atlético Madrid on paper seem to have one of their best squads in Diego Simeone’s tenure with the team. When it was announced that they would be in a Champions League group with Bayern Leverkusen, Club Brugge, and Porto they were the favorites to lead the group into the next stage of the Champions League. Halfway through the group stage though, they sit dead last! Both teams need a win a badly to keep their hopes alive. Can they turn that around?
What Barcelona Needs To Do To Avoid An Early Champions League Exit
Barcelona needs to do something that’s overly simple on paper, but hard to find on the pitch. The need to convert their excessive time of possession into goal scoring chances, and eventually find the back of the net a couple of times. When you bring on Xavi as your manager it’s pretty much a given that he’ll try and build a team that is capable of keeping possession throughout the whole game, and that’s really a great defensive strategy. It’s simple enough if the other team doesn’t have the ball they won’t be able to head towards your goal. The problem is the Inter Milan team that they are facing has no trouble playing off the ball.
Defensively they need to make sure that they minimize those costly errors. Most of their issues come when someone in the midfield or the defensive third loses the ball, and the other team can go on a quick counter. Those are potentially always going to be the issues that a team like Xavi’s faces. What’s arguably more concerning is the fact that they can’t turn the large portions of the game in which they keep possession into goal scoring opportunities. Lewandowski has been great against lower level competition for Barcelona, but he’s struggled when the stakes get higher. Xavi knows though that his team isn’t doing enough to put the Polish national in the right spots to find the back of the net.
Atlético Doesn’t Know How To Be An Offensive Team
We’d like to be able to provide a bit more insight, and maybe some tips for Diego Simeone, but there’s not much to be said. Atlético are recently dealing with an awkward issue. It looks like they don’t know how to be the team on the attack. This is a team that has always looked better off the ball, and playing great on the counterattack. With the amount of talent they have on the squad this year though, they are essentially being forced to play on the ball a lot more. They have to get better at transition defense, particularly at the end of games.
A lot like Barcelona, another thing that they have to find a way to do is create goal scoring chances. They now have the ball more than ever, but they are not necessarily creating a ton of goal scoring chances. Pair that with their abysmal transition defense, and you get a 4th place team fighting for their Champions League lives against Club Brugge who have been the best team in the group. There’s certainly enough talent on the Atlético side to make something happen, but they haven’t been able to have that talent translate to goals.
