The international break ended with the last two champions in La Liga squaring off against each other at the Estadio Vicente Calderon. 

Goals from Neymar and Lionel Messi were able to secure FC Barcelona three points to have their spot top of the league uninterruputed, despite the 6-0 trashing made by their rivals Real Madrid to their city rivals Espanyol. It was a well fought battle for the Blaugrana to come back from a Fernando Torres goal that gave Los Colchoneros the lead early in the second half.

Here are a few things learned from the match between these two powerhouses.

1. MSN working well on its debut

The first match saw the trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez playing its second match in the new season of La Liga. Despite it only working for 30 minutes, as the Argentine magician was on the bench for the first hour of the match as he missed training yesterday, due to the birth of his second child, Matteo.

When he indeed finally came on, he certainly proved that he can make difference, starting or not. 17 minutes after being introduced, Jordi Alba was able to make a pass into the area for Suarez, who rolled the ball and picked out his Argentine partner with a first-time pass as Messi coolly finished past Slovakian goalkeeper Jan Oblak, giving him his first goal of the season.

Only minutes after Fernando Torres scored his first goal of the season and the first goal of the match early in the second half, Barcelona were given a free kick just outside the Atleti area, after Neymar was tripped by Antoine Griezmann. 

This allowed the Brazilian to curve his shot towards the left side of the goal for the equalizer, leaving Oblak without any chance of getting that and gave the winger his first goal of the season, having missed the opener due to mumps.

The only con of this would be Luis Suarez not scoring any goals and while he did assist Messi for the game winner, he was unable to find the ball in the back of the net, as various opportunities were missed by the Uruguayan, denied by various Atletico defenders too.

2. Cholo Simeone's depth will be dangerous

The whole transfer window made by Atletico Madrid was easily one of the best in all of Europe. With the strength and depth of players that were brought into the Spanish capital, one would be strangely confused to deny the fact that this will be a dangerous side to beware of in not only Spain but all across Europe.

With players such as Jackson Martinez, Koke, Antoine Griezmann, Luciano Vietto, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Fernando Torres, Diego Godin and others who impressed so far this season, despite losing their first match tonight at the Calderon, it’s still a team that can cause not anymore of a surprise but can really contend for the title. It will take a battle against their rivals Real Madrid to see who can indeed be closer to challenge Barcelona for the title.

3. ter Stegen will have to get used to La Liga 

Due to the absence of Claudio Bravo, Marc-Andre ter Stegen will be in goal for the time being in La Liga and the UEFA Champions League until the return of the Chilean. Moving on from there, he will have the experience of playing in both competitions instead of playing the entire European campaign.

In his La Liga debut, despite conceding a goal, he had a great performance denying Los Colochoneros chances. This win was an important factor for the young German goalkeeper who has not played a match since the 4-0 routing against Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Super Cup.

Even there, he’s conceded nine goals in only three matches in the new season, but with the win and heading into a UEFA Champions League match against AS Roma on Wednesday, a goal performance there can only boost his confidence tenfold heading into the next league campaign, leaving Luis Enrique to decide who will indeed start in La Liga with the return of Claudio Bravo.

4. Beware Roma and Galatasaray 

Both of those teams will travel to Rome and Istanbul midweek in their first UEFA Champions League match of the new season. The home sides there will have to be fearful of the opponent that they will face respectively.

Tense atmospheres might help the home side during these types of matches but with the sides that both the Madrid and Barcelona club are having at the moment, it will be tough for the Italian and Turkish side to get three points or even secured a single point to get their European campaign on the right track.

5. What's next?

After their European outings, FC Barcelona will host Levante next Sunday while Atletico Madrid take on surprise package Eibar, in what are both important matches.

Most teams tend to slip up their league title winning hopes by not securing three points against the so-called ''small'' sides of the league. For the Blaugrana and Los Colochoneros, they should not slip up because if Real Madrid end up winning against Granada next weekend, then Los Blancos would go top of the league, making the league much closer as ever.

For Barcelona, they want to open the gap as possible and for Atletico, they want to get three points as much as they can and hope that the El Clasico rivals slip up there to build up momentum.

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About the author
Roberto Rojas
Writing about the beautiful game. Cohost of the @LowLimitFutbol Podcast.