Barcelona beat Atlético Madrid, 2-1, thanks to Luis Suarez’s second-half heroics

If you’d told Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone that his side would walk away from Camp Nou with a 2-1 loss on Tuesday, he probably wouldn’t have been too upset. An away goal and a one-goal loss away in the Champions League is never a terrible result. However, he’ll be wondering what might have been after Atléti handed Barcelona that result by way of an early lead, a red card and two goals in the final half-hour by Luis Suarez.

The Rojiblancos appeared to be executing their gameplan perfectly in the early going, despite some good opportunities for the Blaugrana, then took the lead in the 25th minute. Koke was allowed too much space in midfield, picked out Fernando Torres with a gorgeous pass and the Atléti legend finished past Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

But Torres got reckless after scoring. He picked up his first yellow card in the 29th minute, then a deserved sending off six minutes later. At the halfway line, with his team under no threat, he went in late and recklessly on Javier Mascherano. The referee had no choice but to show a red card.

Atléti held out for the rest of the half, and actually started the second half stronger than their opponents by generating a couple of half-chances. But by the 50th minute, Barcelona had taken over and they remained in control for the rest of the match. Lionel Messi shot just wide on a bicycle kick five minutes into the half and Neymar was unlucky to strike the crossbar a minute later.

Suarez got his team on the board in the 63rd minute, thanks to a scuffed shot assist by Jordi Alba. Barca’s left back tried to go for goal and failed, but that failure resulted in a pass to the feet of Suarez, who redirected the ball into the back of the net from close range. The Uruguayan would add his second on the night and the game-winner in the 74th minute, nodding in a cross by Dani Alves.

This was not Barcelona’s most impressive performance of the season, but it was an effective one. Once Atléti went down a man, they had no excuse not to win the match, and Suarez came up big like he has all season long.

Goals: Suarez (63’, 74’)

Goals: Torres (25’)

1. Fernando Torres was a little too pumped up -- Seeing that he’s been told his contract won’t be renewed at the end of the season, scoring against Barcelona was an especially huge moment for Torres. It might have been the last truly huge moment he has at this level of the sport. And the way he expressed all of the emotion and energy he got from scoring a goal was to take wild swings at Barca players. He deserved his sending off, and his bookings were on very stupid, very avoidable challenges. He just had to chill out a bit, and he couldn’t do it.

2. And it really hurt his team -- The Rojiblancos were well in control of the match before Torres was sent walking. Neymar missed a good chance and there were a couple of other promising Barca moves, but Atléti looked very capable of getting a draw or better. They were giving Barca big problems on the counter and keeping the ball well, all while clearly prioritizing shape over everything. Torres’ red card robbed them of a chance to take a huge result off Barca.

3. Atléti got too compact -- While losing Torres should have hurt Atléti’s ability to counter-attack effectively and keep the ball, it shouldn’t have done that much to the way they were defending. But they got spooked by going a man down and opted to start defending with everyone within 25 yards of goal, letting Barca get numbers forward and knock the ball around the penalty area. If Atléti had kept defending the same way, just with one fewer man up top, they might have gotten a better result.