Ninety minutes stands between Super Eagles forward, Ademola Lookman, and his quest to play in the UEFA Champions League semifinal in his first season with Atlético Madrid.
Already, the Spanish capital club have an edge going into the second leg of the quarterfinal clash with Barcelona. The 2-0 advantage they secured in the first leg in Camp Nou last week, has created a buzz amongst their fans that the job will get done tonight at their fortress in Wanda Metropolitano, with Lookman who didn’t score last week, vital to the dream.
The Nigerian international was in action for 60 minutes before he was substituted by Alexander Sorlot. The super sub benefited from Matteo Ruggeri’s low cross to score Atlético’s second goal of the night. Julian Alvarez fired the opener from the free kick awarded Atlético after Barcelona’s Pau Cubarsi was sent off for a reckless challenge.
While Nigerians will be praying for Lookman to succeed with Diego Simeone side, the player that Barcelona’s Hansi Flick will be worried about is Julián Álvarez. The Argentine poses Atlético’s main threat, with six goal contributions (four goals, two assists) across his last three Champions League appearances.
His nine goals is already the most by an Atlético player in one campaign.
Although statistics are concerned to the background when push comes to shove. What counts is the final scores.
Should Flick’s men play the way they did in the first leg in Camp Nou, allowing Atlético only nine touches in their box and just five shots compared to the hosts’ 18, there will be trouble. With Robert Lewandowski pairing with Marcus Rashford, with Lamine Yamal pushing from the supporting role, there will be more defending work to be done. Unfortunately, Raphinha will not be on duty for Barca, struggling with thigh injury. Diego Simeone will most certainly miss the absence of his star defender Marc Pubill who is out through two yellow cards.
However, at this stage of the competition, only twice in 194 previous instances has a team lost the first leg of a European Cup/Champions League knockout tie at home by at least two goals and still progressed to the next round. Will Barcelona emulate Manchester United against Paris Saint-Germain in 2018-19 and Ajax against Benfica in 1968-69)?
Interestingly, Barcelona have also been eliminated from all three previous ties after losing the first leg at home. Furthermore, Barça have won just two of their five away games in this term’s edition, while Atlético have won five out of six on home turf. These are some of the statistics that fans will be looking at this evening as the clock ticks to the kickoff.
The aggregate winner of this quarterfinal fixture will face either of Arsenal or Sporting CP.
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