Barcelona started the season with a six-goal first half at the Nou Camp, going on to beat Levante, 7-0. They’re 45 minutes that now stand in stark contrast to tonight’s first half at the Vicente Calderon - the start of Spanish Super Cup.
Through the first half of the two-leg match, Atlético Madrid (last year’s Copa deal Rey champions) hounded Barcelona to the edge of distinction. The defending Spanish champions failed to put a shot on goal as Atlético, thanks to a 12th minute goal from former Blaugrana David Villa, took a 1-0 lead into halftime.
But the deficit was the least of Barcelona’s halftime worries. Lionel Messi, who scored twice in his team’s opening weekend victory, was brought off for Cesc Fabregas at the beginning of the second, a thigh injury picked up in the first half preventing the four-time Balon d’Or-winner from continuing.
Half-way through the second period, Barcelona finally started stressing the Atlético defense, with Neymar (brought on at the hour mark) scoring his first goal for the club in the 66th minute. On a cross from Dani Alves, Neymar was left unmarked at the far post, heading down and past Thibaut Courtois for Barcelona’s only goal:
Barcelona take the 1-1 result back to the Nou Camp for next week’s second leg. In between, they travel to Andalusia to take on Málaga. In the mean time, Atlético will host fellow Madrid club Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
Despite the competitive match at the Vicente Calderon, with the result of the tie still very much in doubt, the talking points out of today’s game will center on Barcelona’s change of fortune, Messi’s injury, and ...:
- What happened between Sunday’s rout and Wednesday’s struggles? Likely, nothing. Levante are just bad. On the road against a much higher caliber opponent, Barcelona’s results were always going to regress, and while most may have them winning today’s game, there’s no shame in drawing against last year’s third place finisher. The bigger concern will be a first half in which Atlético appeared to be the much more inspired side.
- Messi’s injury will spark memories of last year, when his spring was hindered by a hamstring problem. It’s not that today’s injury is related; rather, it will rekindle nightmares of how different Barcelona were without him. Their 7-0 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich in UEFA Champions League’s semifinals spoke to the dependence Barcelona’s developed on their star. Perhaps Neymar can change that, but still unable to go 90 minutes, it’s too early to be relying on the Brazilian for anything . Today’s goal was a bonus.
- Finally, those kits. Barcelona were with a yellow and red vertical stripes, a look I’d never seen before. Kit Nerds may have known this was coming; if so, I really wish they would have warned us. We don’t need to see this look again.