Madrid
Yannick Carrasco scored after defensive blunders as Atletico Madrid ended a decade-long winless streak against Barcelona in the Spanish league with a 1-0 victory on Saturday.
‘’We are very happy to have won, it had been a long time without a victory against Barca,’’ Carrasco said. As well as the match, Barcelona also lost captain Gerard Pique to a right-knee sprain early in the second half.
The win gave Atletico a nine-point advantage over Barcelona after eight matches. Diego Simeone’s team is level with Real Sociedad at the top of the standings with 20 points and has a game in hand.
Sociedad visits promoted Cadiz on Sunday.
Barcelona dropped to 10th place, staying with 11 points. ‘’The difference (of nine points) is pretty big,’’ Barcelona coach Ronaldo Koeman said.
‘’The league is still long and there are a lot of games left, but this defeat leaves us needing to string together a long run of wins’’
Carrasco netted the winner after mistakes by both Pique and goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen. Pique lost possession near midfield and Ter Stegen unsuccessfully came far out of his area to try to intercept a pass to Carrasco.
The Belgium midfielder neatly slipped the ball between Ter Stegen’s legs to set himself up for a shot from long range into the open net.
‘’It is worrying how we conceded the goal,’’ Koeman said. ‘’A big team cannot concede goal like that . We have (to) work more, especially in defense, to improve.’’
Atletico hadn’t beaten Barcelona in the league since a 2-1 win in February 2010 at the now-demolished Vicente Calderon Stadium. The teams had played 20 matches since then, with Barcelona winning 14 times.
Barcelona had been the last team to beat Atletico at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in the Spanish capital, winning 1-0 last December in the Spanish league. Atletico is now unbeaten in 19 matches at the venue.—AP
