Luis Suarez and Joao Felix celebrate as Atletico Madrid beat Barcelona 2-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium

Suarez On Target As Atletico Eases Past Barcelona

Last updated Oct 3, 2021

Atletico Madrid claimed a vital 2-0 victory against Barcelona courtesy of goals from Thomas Lemar and Luiz Suarez at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in match day 8 of the Spanish La Liga.

Atletico started with former Barcelona striker Suarez in attack with Joao Felix , while the visitors had Memphis Depay upfront with Philippe Coutinho behind him.

Atletico came out firing and went close to scoring through Lemar and Felix, but they couldn’t convert their chances. However, Lemar opened the scoring in the 23rd minute. Felix fed Suarez, who played a brilliant ball round the corner to send Lemar through on goal and the Frenchman powered his effort past Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Lemar scores goal against Barcelona at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium

Atletico continued to create chances as they looked to extend the lead and Suarez missed a glorious chance to score moments later as he fired a one-on-one effort wide.

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However, Suarez made no mistake just before halftime as he scored Atletico’s second after Lemar set him up in the build up to the goal.

Atletico Madrid striker Luis Suarez scores against Barcelona at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium

Barcelona’s best opportunity to get back into the game came in the second half through Coutinho, but the Brazilian’s tame effort was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Jan Oblak. The match finished 2-0 to Atletico Madrid as Barcelona failed to mount a comeback.

The victory moved Atletico level on points with table toppers Real Madrid, who travel to Espanyol on Sunday, on 17 points from eight games. Barcelona, meanwhile, sit ninth with 12 points having played a game fewer.

Barcelona have won just one game in their last six in all competitions as their early season struggles show no signs of easing.

Image of Barcelona defender Gerard Pique on the goal line after Luis Suarez scores goal for Atletico Madrid

“We’re suffering, I’m going to be honest with you,” Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said. “We started well enough, we were brave, but then they create two identical situations and scored twice – whereas we could’ve played for three hours and not scored. It isn’t one problem, there are several.

“People can see what we lack. But we’ll recover. They’re difficult times, a lot of us haven’t experienced this before. We want to turn it around but it isn’t easy.”

La Liga results

Osasuna 1-0 Rayo Vallecano

Mallorca 1-0 Levante

Cadiz 0-0 Valencia

Atletico Madrid 2-0 Barcelona

Chidi Nwoke/Reuters.