Suarez Comes Back To Punish Barca & Koeman
03 October, 2021
Luis Suarez came back to haunt his former side with a goal and an assist as Atletico Madrid piled more misery on FC Barcelona and Ronald Koeman on Saturday night.
LaLiga
Result: Atletico Madrid 2-0 Barcelona
Date: 02 October 2021
Venue: Wanda Metropolitano Stadium
Pedri missed out for Barca due to injury, replaced by Nicolas Gonzalez while Philippe Coutinho, Oscar Mingueza and Pablo Gaviria were all recalled. Meanwhile, Atletico brought back Thomas Lemar, Stefan Savic, Rodrigo de Paul and Joao Felix, who partnered with Suarez upfront against his former side.
The game was cagey in the opening exchanges, with the hosts sitting deep and compact in their own and Thomas Lemar eventually opened up the game in the 23rd minute with the opener for Atletico, curling a strike into the far post after a through ball by Suarez from a counter-attack.
Coutinho came close to levelling matters for Ronald Koeman's charges four minutes later with a first-time strike from a rebound that missed just wide.
In end-to-end attacks, Suarez had the best chance for Diego Simeone's troops just before the half-hour mark after latching onto a through ball, in a similar position as Lemar's first goal but his low curler missed just wide
Suarez eventually doubled the lead for Atletico on the stroke of half-time after picking his spot from a one-on-one with goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen following a counter-attack from deep, with Lemar threading the decisive pass.
Koeman made a change at half-time, as Sergi Roberto replaced Gonzalez for fresh legs in midfield while Simeone also made a substitution in that moment, not risking Rodrigo De Paul after he got a yellow card in the first stanza and brought on Kieran Trippier in midfield.
Coutinho had a rare chance on the hour-mark after going through inside the box but he curled his strike straight at goalkeeper Jan Oblak in a one-on-one situation.
Coutinho was withdrawn four minutes later, as Anssumane Fati came on in his place to give Barca needed cutting edge upfront, before Simeone made a double attacking change in the last 18 minutes, with Antoine Griezmann and Angel Correa coming on for Suarez and Felix.
In the end, Simeone's men comfortably held on to move up to second on the log while Barca dropped down to ninth on the log, although they do have a game in hand.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za
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