O.

Barcelona had complete control but never total dominance tonight. They looked to play direct, with the 2 tricky wingers, Raphinha and Yamal, as the primary outlets. They did this by controlling from deep, circulating the ball within their 2-4 base (3-4 including GK) until an opportunity arose. De Jong was the facilitator of this, always making himself available for the pass, and regularly dropping between the CBs forming a back 3. This gave Barca a numerical overload in the defensive 3rd, but they failed to put it to good use. They looked to create artificial transitions, with Lewandowski dropping deep and the wingers running in behind - a solid counter-movement. When they received a pass, they relied on moments of brilliance from the wingers, which showed, specifically with Lamine Yamal. The front 3 were incredibly fluid where at times, the 2 wingers occupied the same side of the pitch, creating an overload.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 Gasperini set Atalanta up with a man-to-man press. As most of Barca's movement/fluidity was within the front line, they couldn't manipulate the press by dragging the central players away to create passing lanes. Atalanta covered all the space that Barca wanted to exploit with this setup. Additionally, with Barca's overload in the deep areas, it left the front line isolated. This meant that when they were able to play a ball through Atalanta's press, it was usually received by a man in white. When Atalanta did win the ball, they were very high up the pitch. This significantly increased their goal threat in transition, as compared to if they won it back deeper.

𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗮'𝘀 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 In the 2nd half, Barcelona committed more men into the forward line, mostly seen with Gavi moving from a #10 role to more of a second striker next to Lewandowski. This drew Atalanta deeper and allowed Barca to gain more control in the final 3rd (although it still wasn't seen regularly enough). It also increased Barca's likelihood of getting on the end of the direct passes upfield, as they had more numbers across the forward line. In this frame, we can see how it removes Ederson (marking Gavi) from Barca's deeper area, reducing the congestion and opening up passing lanes.

𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 If Flick wants to play a more direct style, they need more fluidity in the midfield areas. With static movement and predictable rotations, Atalanta couldn't be broken down centrally. Gasperini's press could be manipulated by rotating the midfielders (specifically Gavi and Pedri) into wider areas, as De Jong drops deep. This would open up central passing lanes into Lewandowski. In this game, I would have liked to have seen Barcelona use the final 3rd more. They could progress in a less direct manner - which is definitely possible with the quality that they have - before using the fluid front 3 in the final 3rd. With this, it would pull apart a deep block, providing opportunities to penetrate with advancing runs from the fullbacks or the other winger (when both occupying the same side). 𝗲𝗻𝗱