Angel Correa netted a second half equaliser to secure a point for Atletico Madrid away at Barcelona, the two teams drawing 1-1 on Wednesday night in a hue La Liga fixture.
Barca on top in first half
The first half in Catalonia turned out to be mostly goal opportunities from the home team, attacking forward with wonderful link-up play and sensational passing. In the fourth minute, midfielder Sergi Roberto sent a low ball straight to Lionel Messi and with the opportunity to get the first goal for the Blaugrana, the Argentine’s half-volley was taken away firmly by left-back Filipe Luis with a great clearance on the ball. Five minutes later, the Catalan side continued to attack with an opportunity coming from Ivan Rakitic in which his header from a cross was calmly caught into the hands of goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
They kept coming forward, and following some good link-up play and passing, Neymar played a ball to Messi who released a shot from outside the box that ended up saved by the Slovenian goalkeeper. Atletico Madrid got their first big chance of the match in the 16th minute following a shot from distance by Yannick Carrasco that allowed Marc-Andre ter Stegen to be tested by taking it out of goal.
Minutes later, Antoine Greizmann was able to play a ball to Nicolas Gaitan that ended up being stolen away from Javier Mascherano and off the rebound, Carrasco's shot at goal went soaring oer Ter Stegen’s goal. Carrasco was again given space with the ball in a dangerous area soon after, but blasted wide.
Rakitic opens the scoring
The first goal finally came towards the end of the first half, off a wonderful ball from the left from the captain Andres Iniesta, who set up Rakitic to open the scoring with a sublime header past Oblak.
In the second half, Atletico Madrid got off to a quick start with an early opportunity again from Griezmann. The French international went on a good run that ended up with a shot on goal being stopped by Ter Stegen.
Correa equalises after Messi goes off
Some drama occurred in the 61st minute when just minutes after Lionel Messi was substituted for Arda Turan with an apparent groin injury, substitute Angel Correa got the ball from Fernando Torres and started a counter attack, the Argentinean youngster able to sneak the ball past Ter Stegen from the edge of the area to equalise.
Barcelona looked to respond with more opportunities, a free kick from Neymar going up and wide over the Atleti wall and goal. Finally, Jordi Alba looked to possibly score the winner in the 86th minute, but his shot from the left went very wide despite the left-back being given space.