Atletico Madrid 1-2 Barcelona: Fermin double sees leaders restore three-point cushion

Fermín López scored two goals Barcelona came from behind to win Atlético de Madrid 2-1 and restore a three-point cushion on top of LaLiga.

Real Madrid had drawn with Barca thanks to a 3-0 win at Valencia on Saturday, and the Blaugrana looked in danger of being overtaken by Atletico when Giuliano Simeone gave the home side a deserved early lead.

But Atlético paid the price for not adding it, as Fermín equalized for Barca before the break, and the defenders showed much greater control after restoring parity.

And it was Fermín who completed the comeback thanks to a sublime assist from Yamal, dealing a huge blow to Atlético’s title hopes, who are now five points off the pace on a much lower goal difference.

Álvarez came close to opening the scoring against the team he wanted to join in the summer, as he played one-on-one with Joan García and tried to round the Barcelona goalkeeper.

However, Garcia did an excellent job of forcing him out, with the Argentina forward’s eventual attempt to cross on goal deflected from a corner, from which Marc Pubill smashed the crossbar with a header.

Pedri then hit the crossbar at the other end but Atlético found the breakthrough again with Alvarez on the front line as his low cross from the left of the penalty area was denied by Simeone’s first time.

Barca settled a bit after going behind, but were still lucky that an effort from Alvarez didn’t cross the line after squeaking through the legs of García, who moved back to avoid a second.

Atlético were punished for not making the most of their period of superiority when Fermin equalised, curling superbly past Jan Oblak and into the far corner after great work from Pedri in the box.

Pedri continued to be a huge threat for Barca in the second half and saw a shot deflected wide as Barca pushed to complete the turnaround, although they were fortunate to see an attempted strike from Alvarez narrowly deflect the crossbar as the Atlético star met García’s goal again.

However, Atlético’s attacks did not have the same venom in the second half as in the first, and it was Yamal who produced the evocative quality moment of the match, his incisive pass into the area finding Fermín, who headed in the second from close range.

Atletico rarely looked like finding an equalizer and will spend the international break thinking about what might have been, with the title race looking likely to be a very familiar two-horse race.

League Table

Next matches of Atlético de Madrid and Barcelona