Barcelona let another chance slip away against Atletico Madrid

The win against Valencia put some confidence back in Barcelona that they still had a chance to battle for the La Liga crown.

It only took a week for those hopes to be dashed again as a feeble Barcelona were only to come away with a draw against Atletico Madrid.

In a must win game, Ronald Koeman’s side showed no sense of urgency in the first half and once they did, it was too late. They played right into Atletico’s hands and were unable to penetrate the backline aside from a few moments of brilliance from Lionel Messi.

Koeman set out his gala XI in a 3-5-2. But Atletico had a field day down the left, targeting Oscar Mingueza over and over. It was enough for Koeman to replace him with Ronald Araujo at halftime.

While Barcelona were better in the second half, they still couldn’t do much against the Atletico defense. Timely deflections from the defenders and the safe hands of goalkeeper Jan Oblak snuffed out any danger.

Barcelona’s best chance of the game came in late after Ousmane Dembélé was on the receiving end of a Jordi Alba cross into the box. Unmarked, the Frenchman headed the ball over the net. The players knew that was their best chance of scoring as Messi fell to his knees when he witnessed the miss.

Barcelona go missing when it comes to important games

A theme of this season is that Barcelona fail to show up in games where there is something on the line. Whether that’s down to the players or the way Koeman sets up his team is up for debate.

They lost both games against Real Madrid and only managed to draw the home game against Atletico. In other words, against their two biggest rivals, they only picked up one out of a possible 12 points.

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Then there is the 2-1 loss to Granada in which they could have gone overtaken Atletico as league leaders. There is also the Champions League where they lost 3-0 at home against Juventus to lose the group and the 4-1 drubbing, also at home, against Paris Saint-Germain.

For a team the caliber of Barcelona, that is completely unacceptable considering they were chasing the league title.

The only game Barcelona stepped up was in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao.

Real Madrid are the big beneficiaries of this result as they now depend on themselves if they want to win the league. A win in their upcoming match against Sevilla would put them top of the table.

As for Koeman, it’s another game where he fails to deliver. One or two poor results may be a coincidence but, at this point, it’s become a pattern.

If there weren’t doubts about his future before, there might be now.  In games that matter, his team has been coming up short, time and time again.