La Liga Round 16: Atletico Madrid - FC Barcelona 0-1

[Messigician]

I don't understand why our defence isn't that rock solid when it comes to UCL? In La Liga our defence improved a lot compared to past seasons, we have the best defence in the league..

Same reason why no LaLiga team besides real madrid is in UCL

mic drop

 

[PhilS]

Good win, especially without Lewa.

What this game proves is that you must start Gavi, Pedri, Busquets and de Jong, positions be damned. The forwards other than Lewa and frequently Dembele are not good enough to put any of those four natural midfielders on the bench. Sure, Dembele drives us crazy, but he is definitely best of the rest after Lewa.

Araujo is by far our best CB, it's a miracle the team hung onto first place without him.

 

[serghei]

1. because La Liga in general is on the weakest level since 2000s, so we are defending well against mostly very average to poor sides
2. a type of football in La Liga is latino-technical with less pressing, running and physique than in EPL or let's say Germany. So, even a defense with Busi can be stone-wall in that type of circumstances
3. a type of attacks in La liga is again also latino-technical with majority of actions coming from possession, passing, some sort of TikiTaka type of football.
While in CL, there are more crosses, headers and different sorts of attacks where Mats can't cope well with crosses, our defenders (plus Busi) can't cope with headers etc + paired with more physical and faster football compared to La Liga

A somewhat exaggerated analogy: imagine Saudi Arabia being a champion of Asia and playing a good defense, but then losing to a majority of European teams, Brazil and Argentina with 4:0.
And then their journos asking: I don't get it, our defense is stone-wall against Yemen and Turkmenistan, but we concede for fun against Messi, Haaland and Mbappe or France/Brazil/England. Why?

Lol. La Liga is still the 2nd best league in the world.

It's true it seriously declined compared to 5-6 years ago, but back then, it was no1 by far.

Last season Madrid won CL, and the year before Villareal won EL.

 

[Jadentheman]

La Liga is still top 3. Bundesliga is a joke, Ligue 1 is a joke and Serie A is boring

 

[jairzinho]

It's becoming harder to make a case for La Liga being the 2nd best league. Only 1 team in the round of 16 while Bundesliga has 4 and Serie A has 3.

 

[serghei]

La Liga is still top 3. Bundesliga is a joke, Ligue 1 is a joke and Serie A is boring

EPL is the best by a good distance now considering Barca are early in a rebuild from the Barto demolition job.

 

[serghei]

It's becoming harder to make a case for La Liga being the 2nd best league. Only 1 team in the round of 16 while Bundesliga has 4 and Serie A has 3.

True, but it takes more than one season. Accidents can happen. Last season Spain had 2 semifinalists in CL, and the winner, and 5 months later they are shit? Sounds absurd to me.

 

[jairzinho]

True, but it takes more than one season. Accidents can happen. Last season Spain had 2 semifinalists in CL, and the winner, and 5 months later they are shit? Sounds absurd to me.

That's a fair point but looking at the current trend things don't look too bright. Athleti look horrible this year. There's a good chance they don't even qualify for CL next season. Sevilla are more or less fighting relegation. Overall La Liga looks like it could recede quality wise for a season or 2.

 

[serghei]

That's a fair point but looking at the current trend things don't look too bright. Athleti look horrible this year. There's a good chance they don't even qualify for CL next season. Sevilla are more or less fighting relegation. Overall La Liga looks like it could recede quality wise for a season or 2.

Depends on Barca the most really. But Atletico been here before 2-3 years ago, and then they kicked out peak Liverpool, United, and gave City a massive game they barely survived last year.

 

[Nucky]

Same reason why no LaLiga team besides real madrid is in UCL

mic drop

One of the reasons yes, La Liga has fallen a lot in terms of strong teams.. Sevilla are poor, I believe they are in relegation zone even, Atletico Madrid is also poor in form..