Ernesto Valverde and Barcelona will be far from being proud of themselves after their carelessness saw them knocked out of the Spanish Super Cup by a resilient Diego Simeone's Athletico Madrid. Not sure Valverde will have any cogent explanation to give an already fed up Barca fans, who seem not relenting in their continous agitations for the sack of the incumbent catalan boss. The Spanish champions are far from being impressive so far this year. Just two games already in 2020 and they have conceded 5 goals. This is certainly not the good omen for the supporters and with pressure on Barcelona on the league and Champions league, there is need for the Catalan side to find their winning form as soon as possible. Having played 2-2 against Espayol in their previous game, many would have expected the squad to put themselves together and right their wrongs against Athletico in the Super Cup semi final which took place in Saudi Arabia.
A game that many would have thought was already over for Simeone's side turned out to surprise Barca, with Athletico turning the table with just few minutes to go. Perhaps, this will serve as another reminder to Barcelona that in the game of football, you're still yet to win until you win. Just like Chelsea turned the table against Arsenal in their last encounter, few seconds can matter so much in this game. The game which ended 3-2 in Favour of Athletico, will see them take on City rivals Real Madrid on Sunday, when both teams take on each other in the final to determine who lifts the Super Cup. You will recall that Zidane's Madrid defeated Valencia 3-1 on Wednesday night to book a spot in the final. Certainly not the kind of game Barcelona should lose going by the statistics of the match. The Spanish champions dominated the game all through and it was a good spectacle to behold for Saudi spectators. There cheered on and added so much frenzy to the game. As usual, the Barcelona captain Messi was at his best, creating so much problems for Athletico Madrid's defense alongside his striking partners Suarez and Antonie Griezmann. How this game slipped through his hands is still a shock, as Barcelona appeared to have sealed the game and put it beyond the reach of their opponents. Diego Simeone's side had taken the lead earlier in the first half, but Messi restored parity not too long after the second half started. The catalans showed class and pressured their opponents till they scored another goal to put them on advantage, thanks to Griezmann's header against his former employers. However, with Morata converting a dying minute penalty to bring the Scores level, Athletico netted a late winner to end Barca's Super cup dream. For them, it's not the match statistics that matter but the result of the match.
I'm pretty sure this will serve as a message to Liverpool ahead of their Champions league round of 16 clash, no matter how anyone will wanna see it, Liverpool will have to be extraordinary to eliminate Athletico and I'm looking forward to that encounter. "It is a shame, we played a great game, after so long we felt good again, we were in control, dominated and attacked all the time, Messi told reporters in Jeddah. We let it slip through certain mistakes when [Atletico] were already almost dead, in less than 10 minutes they turned round a game that we should have seen out. It hurts because it is a title and we wanted to be in the final and win it, we showed a different side to what we have been showing recently against Espanyol and at the end of last year, we played a good game but sadly we couldn't get the victory. We have taken a step forward today despite the defeat but we are aware that we have not been doing things the way we want, we do not want to make these childish mistakes again." This is a big loss and it has increased the pressure on Ernesto Valverde who has been under fire for some time now. Watching his side lose a game that they had over 70% of the ball position is really terrifying, and I'm sure he will demand for an explanation from his squad.
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