{"id":4896,"date":"2026-04-15T01:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/4896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T01:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:48:16","slug":"were-barcelona-unlucky-versus-atletico-madrid-or-have-they-still-not-learned-their-lesson-in-the-champions-league-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/4896\/","title":{"rendered":"Were Barcelona unlucky versus Atl\u00e9tico Madrid or have they still not learned their lesson in the Champions League?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to be upset with this Barcelona team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There have been two big disappointments this season, both at the hands of Atl\u00e9tico\u00a0Madrid, but Hansi Flick\u2019s Blaugrana never give up, and they never stop entertaining.<\/p>\n

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Flick drew it up perfectly to start the second leg. You can\u2019t argue with his starting lineup, the tactics, or the mentality of his players.<\/p>\n

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It was a bit of a surprise to see Marcus Rashford and Robert Lewandowski dropped to the bench, and to see Gavi get the nod in the midfield, but those choices explain exactly what Flick was going for. Maximum intensity above all else, the core ingredient you need when you are looking to make a comeback.<\/p>\n

Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres, and Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez were the right forwards for the job. Dani Olmo didn\u2019t have his best game, but from a tactical point of view, his inclusion was essential.<\/p>\n

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Gavi was at his warrior best, perhaps even outplaying Pedri, an almost impossible feat.<\/p>\n

Lamine may just have taken his game to an ever higher level. This was a bona fide possessed superstar performance when it mattered most. More Michael Jordan than Lebron James<\/a> if you ask me. On offense and defense, he set the tempo and carried his team on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

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If Fermin\u2019s diving header goes in, Atleti are looking at a possible blow out. From the moment the blood started running down his face, the unstoppable momentum that Barcelona were building came to a stop.<\/p>\n

In the end, Barcelona lived and died by their identity. The comeback was more than possible because of the aggressive attacking football they\u2019ve become known for, and the comeback was extinguished in two key moments that highlight their biggest vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

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Ademola Lookman\u2019s goal that put out Barca\u2019s fire was once again made possible by a deep run behind a high backline. The foul from behind that got Eric Garcia sent off was a hard to believe case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.<\/p>\n

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Even before the red card, however, Barcelona were starting to slow down. If I\u2019m critical of Hansi Flick in any way in this game, I think his in game management could have been a bit more proactive. Frenkie de Jong was needed earlier on, and perhaps it should have been Olmo making way instead of Ferm\u00edn.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s neither here nor there. At that point, Barca was chasing the game.<\/p>\n

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The opportunity to win it was when they had a chance to press their advantage in the first half.<\/p>\n

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One thing we know, the Champions League is cruel, and it certainly doesn\u2019t always reward the teams that play the best football.<\/p>\n

For that reason, Barcelona, and their beautifully stubborn insistence on playing the game with poetry instead of prose, will always be at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Could they have been better, and gone farther?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to overlook the patterns that continue from the past, but if you judge them based on the two quarterfinal games against Atleti alone, in my heart I think they were unlucky this time around.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s heartbreaking, but I\u2019m grateful for the show.<\/p>\n

One thing\u2019s for sure, with Hansi Flick in charge, I can\u2019t wait to see what these incredible stewards of the game have in store for us next year.<\/p>\n

Football needs Barcelona, so let\u2019s hope this is just the beginning of their story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to be upset with this Barcelona team. There have been two big disappointments this season, both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1309,2139,92,939,927,223,931,934,851,728,2141,930,938,2122,82,936,664,2366,935,17,1236],"class_list":{"0":"post-4896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-ademola-lookman","9":"tag-atletico-de-madrid","10":"tag-barcelona","11":"tag-dani-olmo","12":"tag-eric-garcia","13":"tag-fc-barcelona","14":"tag-fermin-lopez","15":"tag-ferran-torres","16":"tag-frenkie-de-jong","17":"tag-gavi","18":"tag-getty-images","19":"tag-hansi-flick","20":"tag-lamine-yamal","21":"tag-lebron-james","22":"tag-madrid","23":"tag-marcus-rashford","24":"tag-pedri","25":"tag-riyadh-air-metropolitano","26":"tag-robert-lewandowski","27":"tag-spain","28":"tag-uefa-champions-league"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}