Barcelona won in Madrid on chances well below their norm

Fermín López scored twice as Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 2-1, despite creating far less than they usually do.

Fermín López scored both Barcelona goals at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, and the more interesting question is how little Barcelona needed to produce them. Expected goals, a measure of how good each shot was judged by where and how it was taken, came to 1.57 for the visitors. That is well below the 2.92 Barcelona average over a season, so this was a far more ordinary return for them than the scoreline suggests.

Atletico Madrid finished with exactly the same total, and that is where the match turns strange. Their figure is well above the 1.08 they average at home, yet they reached it from only nine shots, against a home average of 16.7. Giuliano Simeone Baldini opened the scoring in the tenth minute after a pass from Julián Álvarez, and it was a chance their own numbers say they created more often than usual.

Possession tells the same story from the other side of the pitch. Atletico Madrid had 37% of the ball, down from their usual 59.3%, while Barcelona had 63%, below the 70.3% they average away from home. Both sides had less of the ball than normal, which is a reminder that possession and chances do not always travel together. Barcelona took 18 shots, a little under their away average, and 11 of them came from inside the box.

The turning points came in the first half and in the middle of the second. Fermín's equaliser arrived at 45 minutes, just before the interval, and the winner came in the 66th minute, set up by Lamine Yamal. Both teams had four shots on target, so the difference lay in the goals rather than in the number of efforts that tested the keeper. Fermín earned a match rating of 9.6, the strongest individual mark attached to either side.

Discipline was clean in one sense and untidy in another. Nobody was sent off. Three of the four yellow cards went to Atletico Madrid, with Alejandro Baena Rodríguez booked before half-time and Marcos Llorente and Marc Pubill cautioned in the final minutes. Barcelona's only booking came from Marc Bernal, which left the visitors with a quieter closing spell than the home side.

Barcelona are now top of the table, while Atletico Madrid sit third. The visitors have lost only two of their last six away matches, and their own home record shows nine wins from eleven. Barcelona's 30 points lead the division, with Atletico Madrid on 28.

Player of the matchFermín2 goals9.6

G. Simeone1 goal7.6

Lamine Yamal1 assist7.5

J. Álvarez1 assist7.2