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Barcelona v Atlético Madrid: Champions League quarter-final, first leg | Champions League
Key events
31 min: Koke is booked for a clumsy foul on Olmo. Hancko is off injured (sorry for doubting you) and Marc Pubill is on.
30 min: Now Olmo hits a cultured, searching cross from right to left looking for Rashford at the far post. The Manchester United alumni manages to stab it goalwards despite a tight angle, and Musso does well to save, even if the ball nearly squirts under his body.
29 min: Hancko is down injured after that cross by Kounde. He’s gone off the pitch for treatment, behind the goal. There was a stoppage of a couple of minutes, a cynic might suggest it was a good time for a breather for the visiting defence.
27 min: Kounde bends a cross over looking for Lewandowski after receiving an intricate little ball to feet on the edge of the box. Molina does well to flick it clear with his head, with the Poland international lurking.
Pedri of Barcelona has been booked, for what, I am not sure.
25 min: Atléti enjoy a spell of possession, pinging passes around impressively, starving Barcelona of the ball and probing for an opening themselves. Cancelo hauls Simeone to the deck around halfway. Simeone demands a card. Amazingly, he doesn’t change the ref’s mind. There are some robust challenges flying around, it’s physical as well as skilful.
24 min: Atletico were advertised playing 4-4-2, but it looked more like a back five just then. Still no bus-parking mind you.
21 min: Llorente plays a poor pass from a position in central defensive midfield, trying to spray it out left, but overhits it. He wants a free-kick, but the officials aren’t having it.
20 min: The noise from the fans is deafening. They are seeing both teams play some impressively progressive football here, both going for it every time they get the ball. Tim’s pre-match prediction, that the visitors will not park the bus, was quite correct.
17 min: Atléti want a penalty for handball. Nothing doing.
In the next installment of this end-to-end thriller, Pedri slides a fantastic defence-splitting pass for Yamal on the Barça right, who wastes no time in squaring for Rashford, who tucks it into the gaping net! But the flag is up. Yamal was offside from Pedri’s fine pass. No goal.
15 min: Lookman and Griezmann link for Atléti, but Barca snuff out the danger. Needless to say, Barcelona immediately go for the jugular again. Rashford uses his exceptional pace and has Molina on toast down the left wing. He tries to cut back from the byline for Lewandowski, but his attempted low cross is blocked.
14 min: There’s a beautiful tempo to this. High, high quality stuff. Now Eric Garcia builds down the Barcelona right. He floats a cross to Rashford in space at the far post, inside the area but a little way out. The England international hits a businesslike volley that bounces wide of a post. It was close enough to draw a gasp from the crowd with Musso scrambling across his goal.
10 min: No one has had a shot for at least a minute, which is unusual. Here comes Lookman for Atlético, though! He finds Simeone with a fantastic pass out wide after coming up against a well-positioned Barcelona backline. Simeone cracks one powerfully but it’s neither on target nor in reach of a teammate.
9 min: Now Cancelo, looking like a footballing Rolls-Royce as per usual, cuts in and hammers a low shot at Musso from an angle. The goalie makes a tidy save.
8 min: Koke cynically takes out Olmo with Barça ready to break at pace. The ref has a strong word. But no card.
7 min: This is more open than a school-playground lunchtime kickabout at 1.58pm.
Yamal looks for Rashford, in space on the left, but gets it wrong. Then the visitors stream down to the other end and Lookman has a shot blocked. Corner.
5 min: The pace is hot! Hot! Hot! The visitors fashion one chance at the other end after Rashford’s early opening, with Griezmann being crowded out near the six-yard box … then seconds later, Alvarez powers in from the right wing, along the byline, cuts back and hits a shot straight at Garcia. He should have scored! It should be 1-1!
4 min: Huge chance for Rashford! Atlético’s Molina gives it away in a defensive area with a pass inside, a horrible error, and Rashford is suddenly one-on-one. He hits an unconvincing effort at Musso and the keeper is able to save with a foot. That should be 1-0.
2 min: A niggly little foul by Griezmann early doors, on Pedri. The crowd wails before Gerard Martín takes the free-kick.
Flick paces the touchline in a comfy-looking black jumper and Nike trainers.
Rashford has an early go, cutting in from the Barcelona left and hitting a shot straight at Musso.
First-half kick-off!
Vamos!
A moment to honour the memory of Mircea Lucescu.
I hereby designate Dani Olmo, playing in the middle of a forward three behind Lewandowski and with pace either side, in the “schemer” role.
Marcus Rashford appears from the tunnel, and raises both hands to the heavens.
It feels like there’s a special energy to this tie already.
We are literally less than five minutes away from kick-off!
The atmosphere in the stadium looks sensational. FC Barcelona flags are held aloft everywhere. The players are assembled in the tunnel.
Vamos!
Rob Smyth has Paris Saint-Germain v crisis club Liverpool over on Channel 1:
“What he’s done for that club is absolutely astronomical,” Cole says of Griezmann, soon to depart Atletico for Orlando City FC. There’s a decent Nasa link in there somewhere.
“I don’t think Atlético will do a smash and grab etc.,” opines Tim on email.
“They are an excellent team on the break and will outplay Barca in my opinion for significant stretches.”
Was it really May 2024 when Lookman banged in that hat-trick for Atalanta in the Europa League final v Leverkusen?
You bet it was:
Lookman signed for the Spanish club in February, a piece of transfer news that had hitherto escaped me.
Luis Garcia is on duty in the stadium, evoking those days when it seemed like Chelsea and Liverpool played each other every three minutes.
Atlético and Barça will play thrice in the space of nine days, starting with the match on Saturday, when Lewandowski won it. This is their fifth meeting of the current season, to boot.
“Diego Simeone has never won at Camp Nou,” says Karen Carney, alongside Cole on pundit duty. And there you have it. No time like the present, that’s what I say.
“It’s beauty and the beast,” says Joe Cole on TNT Sports of the contest that awaits. We know what Atlético are going to do tonight, they’ll “bank in”, make it nasty, they’ll be aggressive, and there’ll be all sorts of shenenigans going on.”
Alvarez, leading the line for the visitors, has scored 14 goals in his last 17 Champions League matches. #Prolific
“A smash and grab would be great,” emails Andres. “But look up Simeone’s record at Barcelona.”
Would you mind doing it? Much appreciated.
I’d also take a sparkling attacking masterclass from Flick’s side as well of course. I’m pretty flexible on the issue.
Barça may be favourites and deservedly so but personally I’d like to see a classic European smash-and-grab by Simeone’s side tonight, with a healthy dose of naughty defending and shithousery in the mix.
Araujo stuck in one hell of a reducer on Phil Foden the other week at Wembley during England 1-1 Uruguay. I saw it with my own eyes and it was the most violent tackle in a top-level game I’ve seen for a good while.
Teams
Lewandowski came off the bench on Saturday to score the winner but starts tonight, with fit-again Jules Kounde the other change. Raphinha is out with a hamstring injury and will miss the second leg, too. Ronald Araujo limped out of the La Liga match on Saturday but is on the bench tonight.
Marcos Llorente is one of five changes to Simeone’s Atlético team from the weekend: David Hancko, Matteo Ruggeri, Ademola Lookman and Julian Alvarez are the others.
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Cubarsi, Gerard, Joao Cancelo; Eric Garcia, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Rashford; Lewandowski. Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Balde, Araujo, Gavi, Torres, Lopez, Casado, Bardghji, Cortes, Espart, Marques.
Atlético Madrid (4-4-2): Musso; Molina, Le Normand, Hancko, Ruggeri; Simeone, Llorente, Koke, Lookman; Griezmann, Alvarez. Substitutes: Esquivel, de Luis, Mendoza, Sorloth, Baena, Almada, Lenglet, Pubill, Vargas, Gonzalez, Diaz.
Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania)
And how good is the weather, by the way? Answer: very. With another seemingly interminable league phase (and winter) out the way we can now enjoy some decent knockout ties. Sunshine + meaningful Champions League encounters (beyond the recent round of 16): it’s a heady mix.
Team news will be coming up soon, meanwhile, why not send me an email?
Preamble
How good are Barcelona, really? How good is Robert Lewandowski when push comes to shove? And how good are Atlético nearly 15 years into the reign of the sharp-suited Diego Simeone?
There are some recent clues. The seasoned Poland striker Lewandowski had the last word in La Liga on Saturday, his 87th-minute winner added to Marcus Rashford’s opener giving Barça a 2-1 comeback win away from home.
Hansi Flick’s side are closing in on the league title, leading second-placed Real Madrid by seven points, with a 19-point chasm separating Barcelona and tonight’s opponents.
And yet. In February Diego Simeone’s side thrashed Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final. “This will remain in the memory however the tie ends,” Simeone said that night. They progressed, despite losing 3-0 the following week.
History is also on Atlético’s side: these two faced each other in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2013/14 and 2015/16, and Simeone’s side prevailed on both occasions, their only previous meetings in the competition.
More recently the last nine encounters have produced 35 goals between them, and there will be an embarrassment of attacking riches on show this evening. “We are ready to compete and we believe we can hurt them,” said Simeone. This could be quite good …
Kick-off: 8pm UK time.
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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