Atletico Madrid had a last chance to save themselves from a historically disastrous team. Champions LeagueGroup stage La Liga.
Atletico and the Estadio Metropolitano had both sounded the final whistle. Bayer Leverkusen locked at 2-2, a result that condemned the hosts to elimination from this season’s Champions League.
After receiving an alert VAR about a possible handball from a Leverkusen Player as a 96th minute corner had been cleared, Clement Turpin, referee, immediately took his finger to the ear.
After that decision was finally confirmed, Yannick Carrasco placed the ball on the penalty spot — knowing that if he scored, Atletico would win and keep their Champions League hopes alive.
This is where the evening descended into farce: Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky saved the Belgian’s poorly struck penalty and midfielder Saul Niguez headed the rebound off the crossbar. Reinildo grabbed onto the loose ball, and hit it goalwards. But Carrasco inadvertently deflected the ball to safety. Atletico were out.
ASTONISHING SPACES! 🫢
Yannick Carrasco misses a late penalty that ultimately sealed Atletico Madrid’s Champions League exit ❌#UCL pic.twitter.com/yrmYz21FDL
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 26, 2022
In Catalonia, however, Barcelona had already been knocked out at the group stage for the second year running — with less drama but even more pain. Their fate had been sealed by Inter Milan’s Victory of 4-0 over group outsiders Viktoria Plzen in Wednesday’s early game, but there was to be no consolation triumph against Bayern Munich, who outclassed Xavi’s side.
Bayer Leverkusen’s Lukas Hradecky saves Yannick Carrasco’s penalty (Photo: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images)
Goals from Sadio Mane, Eric Choupo-Moting and Benjamin Pavard sealed a 3-0 win — Bayern have now scored the last 15 goals in meetings between these two sides.
With SevillaJoin Atletico and Barcelona also in the Europa LeagueThese are dark times for La Liga. As we enter the final round of Champions League group game, the standings indicate that EnglandThere will be four teams competing in the 16th edition. Germany, Portugal Italy three. SpainAre set to join Belgium FranceWith just one (Real Madrid, the reigning champions
It is Spain’s lowest number of teams at that stage in more than two decades and the first time ever that three Spanish teams have gone out in the competition’s group stages.
It is some turnaround, given La Liga had been used to dominating Europe’s premier club competition. Madrid won four Champions Leagues, while Barcelona won four between 2013-14-17-18.
La Liga teams won Champions Leagues more times in 2006 than all other European leagues. Atletico also reached two finals during a four-year spell in which Diego Simeone’s team could beat anyone outside Spain but kept falling short against the Clasico duo. Also, Valencia, Sevilla Villarreal, Malaga and Villarreal had strong runs.
Yet this year’s problems should not be a surprise. There were warning signs last season. After five of six group games had been completed there was a real chance that only one La Liga side would win. The Athleticspoke with figures from the Spanish gameThose who agreed with La Liga were generally of the opinion that clubs in La Liga could not compete financially with major continental rivals, particularly in the highly competitive physical environment. Premier League. They were able to out-think and outskill larger and more powerful competitors, which had helped them prosper. But the odds were getting less favorable.
As it happened, Atletico and Villarreal pulled off last-gasp away wins in the final group games to make last season’s last 16. They did pretty well there — Simeone’s team knocked out Manchester UnitedThen push! Manchester CityClose in the quarterfinals. Emery’s Villarreal eliminated JuventusBefore giving, Bayern and you LiverpoolThere was a scare in semi-finals.
Madrid’s rollercoaster road to winning the trophy was perhaps the most dramatic and unlikely in history. They could easily have been beaten by Paris Saint-Germain. ChelseaCity and City made it to the final. However, Liverpool was outclassed in the decider.
But La Liga’s decline has been trending for some time. Real’s victory in Paris was the first time a La Liga team had made a Champions League final in the last four seasons, and Barcelona have been sliding away from the top tier since they last won the trophy in 2015.
Barca’s results and performances this season, both in Europe and when they lost to Madrid in the La Liga Clasico, should lead everyone at the club to question what they are doing, including club president Joan Laporta and head coach Xavi. Last summer’s lever-pulling was all about borrowing from the club’s future to ensure immediate success this season. Laporta confidently stated this would kick-start a virtuous circle where the club’s income would so quickly increase that they could easily pay off their debts. In the Europa League, that is not going to happen.
It isn’t clear that Barca’s top management are aware of this. Their problems are deep. After losing 2-0 at Bayern earlier in the group, Barca’s sporting director Jordi Cruyff said that the performance had sent a message that Barca were back. On Wednesday, Jordi cruyff, Barca’s sporting director, said that the performance had sent a message that Barca were back. Inter result was confirmed, but before his team’s game began, Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany said that they would still be in the competition but for “inexplicable refereeing decisions” that caused the crucial 1-0 defeat at Inter in game three.
Since their final defeats to Real in 2014, and 2016, Atletico haven’t really been challenged in the last stages of the competition. They can deliver epic performances at times — as against Manchester United last season and Liverpool in 2019-20 — but these are the only two Champions League knockout ties Atletico have come through in the last six seasons.
Simeone has been working this time with a squad that is increasingly out-of-step with his ideas about football. Simeone is too dependent on inconsistent attacking players and has not enough tough, teak-tough defenders. That was shown again on Wednesday when stylish but error-prone defender Mario Hermoso was at fault for Bayer’s opening goal; he was hooked at half-time. Meanwhile, starting centre-forward Alvaro Morata had zero shots before being removed on the hour mark, and €127million (£110m, $128m) attacker Joao Felix remained on the bench until there were just three minutes left.
The endings of both nights at the Metropolitano on Wednesday night and Camp Nou on Wednesday night were similar.
Some Atletico players — including Antoine Griezmann, Rodrigo De Paul, Jan Oblak, Saul and Geoffrey Kondogbia — remained on the pitch for 10 minutes after the final whistle, standing each alone, staring up as the hardcore Frente Atletico fans bounced up and down and sang about their devotion to the club.
Saul looks dejected after Atletico Madrid’s Champions League exit (Photo: Alvaro Medranda/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Similar scenes were unfolding in Catalan capital. Barca’s players had already disappeared down the tunnel, before their Grada d’Animacio ultras chanted for them to return to the pitch. The players returned to the pitch, and Xavi was there, watching as their fans waved giant flags and clapped together.
The support shown for the players was admirable but also very futile. This is not the time to support your team blindly, but to reflect on Spanish football’s top players.
The last week has also seen more of the interminable political squabbling at the upper levels of Spanish football administration — with La Liga president Javier Tebas and Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez and their proxies battling to influence the Spanish politicians who are writing a new sports law that will govern the running of football and all its related businesses in the country. Tebas and Luis Rubiales, the Spanish federation chief, are also engaged in a parallel struggle for power and money. Perez and Laporta continue to cling to the European Super League’s supposed savior.
Some of the complaints from Tebas and Perez about the issue of state-owned clubs and the Premier League’s huge wealth have some merit. All the turmoil at the top can’t be helping teams keep pace with their rivals elsewhere.
Even allowing for Madrid’s fantastic success last season, La Liga’s teams have fallen from their previous position at the very peak of the European game. That should concern all involved in Spanish soccer.
(Top photo: Alex Caparros – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
