Raphinha’s creative display was cancelled out by a clinical Atalanta side, who missed out on their opportunity to qualify within the top eight.
Barcelona’s exciting style of play continued in this affair with another enthralling display against Atalanta, who were without the injured Ademola Lookman.
Atalanta twice pegged back Barcelona. Éderson canceled out Lamine Yamal’s opener; Ronald Araújo put them back in front with a commanding header in the 72nd minute before Mario Pašalić equalised again in the 79th.
Despite Atalanta’s battling performance, they missed out on the top eight by just the one point as results elsewhere in the league phase did the Italian outfit no favours.
As it happened
The first half an hour of ‘action’ if one could call it that, saw little more than fantastic play from Lamine Yamal and a few balls flashed across the face of goal. Atalanta nearly found themselves a goal ahead were it not for Wojciech Szczęsny, who kept Álex Balde’s intervention from finding his own net.
Again Atalanta thought they had that struck first with Davide Zappacosta in the 35th minute. Unfortunately, a narrow offside denied them the lead away at Barcelona’s temporary ground Estadi Olímpic Lluís.
Into the second half it took Barcelona just two minutes to break the deadlock. A fantastic sweeping break was orchestrated by a Robert Lewandowski pass that unlocked Raphinha, who then slid Yamal in for his 10th goal of the season.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was a moment of brilliance by Atalanta’s Éderson who managed to work a bit of space for a shot, and fired a rocket past the experienced Szczęsny, to equalise in the 67th.
However, it didn’t take Barcelona long to reply. Raphinha got his second assist of the game as he whipped a corner to the back post where an unmarked Ronald Araújo nodded home.
Embed from Getty ImagesThat result could have seen Barcelona top the table – but again Atalanta showed great fight. Martin de Roon’s incisive pass located Mario Pašalić who was narrowly onside, and calmly slotted his goal underneath Szczęsny.
The stalemate sees Barcelona finish second in the league table while Atalanta miss out on automatic qualification by just one point and face the playoffs.
