On Saturday evening, the most interesting matches of the 13th round of the Spanish "La Liga" championship were played.
At the "Wanda Metropolitano" stadium, there was a grand clash - Madrid's "Atletico" welcomed "Barcelona" at home. The confrontation of the teams competing for the title did not clarify the winner - the "rojiblancos" conceded a goal in the last minutes of the match and had to settle for a 1:1 draw.
The match was tense and difficult for the referee - there was a lot of fighting and unnecessary emotions on the field. Jesus Gil Monzano had to show eight yellow cards and calm down the players in these matches.
After the first 45 minutes, there was complete equality on the field - the Catalans controlled the game, but did not have many real opportunities to score, just like the home team "Atletico".
In the second half, the teams finally showed potential in attack. In the 77th minute, the entire stadium plunged into euphoria when Diego Costa headed the ball into the goal after a corner kick.
"Atletico" gained an advantage, and D. Costa ended his "black" streak - he had not scored a goal in the "La Liga" championship this season. Overall, without a goal, the forward had been since February in the national championships.
"Barcelona" urgently needed a goal, so there was increasing danger near the "Atletico" penalty area. In the 90th minute, the Catalans found gaps in the opponents' defense - Lionel Messi found a free Ousmane Dembele in the right side of the penalty area, passed the ball to him, Dembele controlled the ball with his left foot and struck a shot into the ground, extending the lead for the visitors from Barcelona with a very important goal.
After a draw, "Barcelona" retained the first position, but in case of a victory for "Sevilla", they could push the Catalans out of the leader position. "Atletico" with 24 points at least temporarily rose to second place.
Result:
"Atletico" 1 - 1 "Barcelona"
77' [1 - 0] D. Costa
90' [1 - 1] O. Dembele
Tournament table:
Starting lineups:
"Atletico": Oblak; Arias, Savic, Lucas, Filipe; Koke, Rodrigo, Saul, Lemar; Griezmann, Costa.
"Barcelona": Ter Stegen; Semedo; Pique, Umtiti, Alba; Busquets, Sergi Roberto, Arturo Vidal, Arthur; Messi, Luis Suarez.
