(Jordi Blanco, correspondent, Barcelona).- Barcelona is already in Champions positions. Collapsed not so many weeks ago, given over to a depression that seemed to have no end, he returned to the Camp Nou in a highly demanding game and resolved it with great authority, defeating (4-2) an Atlético team that survived as well as it could but was swept in all orders and that if it advanced on the scoreboard as soon as it started and then rejoined the game it was because of the concessions, usual, of Barça in defense and because of the expulsion, funny, of Dani Alves, an exceptional protagonist for good and for worse in his return to the stadium as a Barça player.
It was an old-fashioned Barça-Athletic match, one of those games with goals, controversies and expulsions and that finally caused the fans, so far from passion in recent times, to resume the character of yesteryear. Even Xavi, always polite and patient, lost his temper after the expulsion of his brother (assistant coach) and earned a warning.
The absence of football at the Camp Nou for more than a month, the entity of the rival, the importance of the match and the illusion of the new faces caused a special atmosphere. With almost 75,000 fans in the stands and the feeling of facing a match that can mark the season. If time is running out and mistakes are becoming more dangerous, the duel against the still champion was known to be transcendental and Barça responded to the test with better grades than could have been imagined.
The defense, yes, is still a permanent festival. On his first arrival, Carrasco scored after a general oversight and Atlético embraced the thought of finally giving the winning blow at the Camp Nou… But he did not count on the angry, immediate and forceful awakening of a relaunched Barça in his spirit, who equalized almost immediately with a rare volley from Jordi Alba and turned the score around shortly after thanks to a phenomenal header from Gavi.
From there to the break, the Barça festival was almost absolute. With Dani Alves, assistant in the 2-1, turned into a multi-purpose player accompanied by the verticality and excellence of Adama and the total pressure and concentration of Xavi’s entire team, against whom an Atlético barely had the capacity to respond, beaten by Araújo’s 3-1, he went into the break on the brink of surrender.
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The surrender was understood definitively as soon as Alves, shortly after starting the second
half, put the 4-1 in full festival. The Brazilian, happy, did what he wanted on the field, anywhere and at any time, and in the face of the prevailing euphoria, nobody paid attention to the fact that Luis Suárez’s goal, another gift from the defence, could bring the game to life.
But the 4-2 was the prelude to the expulsion of Alves, just for his kick from behind to Carrasco, and turning the game into a war of nerves until the end. It continued, yes, Barça being better but it was no longer against a destroyed rival, but against an Atlético who fell on their feet and got rid of what could have been a real massacre.
Barça regained their joy and suggested that after the winter market Xavi already has what he needed to make up for lost time. At the moment he has already given it to advance to Simeone’s team and place himself in Champions League positions.
We will have to see, little by little, how far he is able to go because it would not be the first time that disappointment follows happiness.
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