Having defeated Atlético, Barcelona moved into second place in the Spanish championship.

Another European football weekend ended with a series of interesting matches involving the giants. In the Spanish championship, Barcelona surprisingly easily – 3:0 – destroyed Atlético Madrid on the road and finally climbed to second place in the table. In the Italian world championship – 1:1 – two champions split: Napoli, the champion is still formally active, but resigning, and Inter, the future champion. And in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, Manchester United won perhaps its most important victory of the season, beating Liverpool in a dashing game capped by overtime – 4:3.

Spanish Championship

The result of the main match of the 29th round of the Spanish championship looks, of course, surprising – due to the specifics of Atlético. The Madrid club is having a far from ideal season, it is outside the top three and it will be difficult for it to even reach bronze. But he retained one specific feature of his. Atlético are virtually invulnerable at home. He hasn’t lost at his stadium for more than a year – since January 2023, when he lost to the same Barcelona. And here he not only lost, but, one might say, was embarrassed, forcing him to remember the difficult return match of the opening round of the Champions League play-off against Inter on Wednesday. His outcome was happy for Atlético: he advanced after a penalty shootout. But the new meeting literally shouted that the sluggish Madrid base, as if it had not yet had time to recover, could use a boost of energy to restore agility and density in defense.

As for Barcelona, ​​the number one theme was obvious. Before the season, she loaned Joao Felix from Atlético, in whom the Madrid club, which once saw a talent worth €126 million in the Portuguese, seems to have become disillusioned. Felix did not become a key element in the structure of Barcelona coach Xavi. But against his former club, he used it in both championship matches – and he was right. In December, Barcelona beat Atlético Madrid at home thanks to a single goal from Felix. Now he played perfectly again, not paying attention to the constant whistling of the stands, and at the end of the first half he opened the scoring. And his goal seems to have been a serious psychological blow for Atlético, which had managed somehow before.

Thanks to this win, Barcelona was finally able to move into second place in the championship standings, pushing Girona into third. She made a mistake, losing 0:1 to Getafe. However, Barcelona is a long way from Real Madrid: it is eight points ahead.

Italian Championship

The central match of the 29th round of the Italian championship was like passing the baton. Last year’s champion Napoli, for whom everything is now so bad that one cannot even dream of medals – it would be a blessing to jump from today’s seventh position into the European Cup zone – met away with Inter. His rivals, on the contrary, can, in principle, slowly begin to celebrate gold, because it cannot escape them anywhere: the closest pursuer, Milan, is almost a dozen points behind.

The game turned out to be pretty bland. Everything in it seemed to be heading towards the 11th consecutive victory in the Inter championship, but in the end Juan Jesus equalized the score. And in this, by the way, one could even discern, if desired, some symptom unpleasant for the Milanese. Until last week they had an amazing achievement to their credit: they had never conceded a goal in the final quarter of an hour in any match this season. And suddenly the statistics went bad. In the Champions League, Inter missed out on winning against Atlético, and now against Napoli.

FA Cup

Almost a full day has passed since Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final match between Manchester United and Liverpool, and leading British media resources such as the BBC continued to savor and discuss how true the words of Manchester coach Erik ten Hag were when he the game is over. “Maybe this is the turning point where we realize we can beat anyone,” ten Hag said, clearly meaning it.

Manchester United’s season is not going well. He is sixth in the championship, constantly experiencing breakdowns, and the difference between him and Liverpool, which is at the top of the table together with Arsenal, is colossal. But they managed to defeat such a powerful opponent, which is most valuable, despite the circumstances, by showing both class and character – a combination of qualities necessary to return the usual status of a full-fledged grandee.

Manchester United looked brilliant in the first half, but managed to concede two goals in a row before the pause and went to rest, losing 1:2. And then, not finding a chance, he still didn’t break down and still won back shortly before the end of regular time thanks to Anthony’s goal. Finally, in overtime, Liverpool again took the lead – and again the Manchester team did not give up, restoring the balance. And the culmination of this thriller was the goal scored in stoppage time by Amad Diallo.

Alexey Dospehov