Atletico Madrid is now only three points behind its rivals Barcelona in La Liga after being ten points behind at the start of November. They have a game in hand, and that also adds to it even more. This is where this incredible comeback, fittingly the highlight of what proved to be an exhilarating 96th minute finish by Alexander Sørloth at the Olympic Stadium between the top two teams of the competition was rightly played.

In fact the match was rather plotted in a more complicated way than a creative story. After Pedri scored a great first goal for Barcelona, Rodrigo De Paul found the back of the net that led to an entertaining La Liga second half. Further supported and egged on by this chanting crowd, both hosts seemed all set to get the elusive last contestant. Pedri was leading Barça’s constant pressure as everything in front was thrown forward when the board put the clock on six additional minutes. However, the home fans became more and more unhappy for themselves. Atletico’s on the road fans erupted with furious standing ovation after their team extended its winning streak to 12 in all fronts, the last twist and drama of the match. They have now set themselves up as proper title contenders because of this run.

Barça is, on the contrary, in a very deep hole. They have not been able to produce consecutive victories, let alone mimic Atletico’s 12-match winning form yet. Hansi Flick’s team has fail, collecting a comical six points out of 21 offered at the end, after gaining a stunning 33points in 36.

A lot of has been written on the extreme reduction in their occurrence. Their previously successful high defensive formation, which is now being investigated, is the primary hypothesis. Even though Atlético tried to fully utilise the weakness they had identified as early as the first half to the end of the game, Sørloth’s goal – the decider – exposed the frailty. A few minutes later and Barça was giving the ball away with little reason for doing so, De Paul was the man who had picked it up. The defense shifted higher, leaving out Nahuel Molina’s gorgeous run, as a preparation for an offside formation. De Paul lifted a great pass for Sørloth from the middle to out of Barça’s misery, Molina made a well-timed pass.

Fatigue was also highlighted as a possible contributing factor. Raphinha told ESPN earlier this week Other effects mentioned as possibly contributing to the situation were working at the weekend, being tired. Raphinha said earlier this week in an interview with ESPN that tiredness has affected Barça, pointing to the fact that they have only won a single game in the last seven La Liga matches. All ten players on the team have now played more than 1,500 minutes this season. However, their performance against Atlético had a somewhat different message. They began the game well, and in many instances took the game to the opposition and controlled it for duration of the half.

Hansi Flick, who during the Atlético game was serving the second of a two-match touchline ban, has something to tell her thought that it is all in vain due to this moment of hope. The most irritating with Barça’s troubles has been their tendency to make mistakes when it’s least wanted like to lose points against Las Palmas and Leganés at home. Worse still, the team has now recorded three consecutive league defeats at the Olympic Stadium. Nevertheless, when meeting the strong rivals the team rises to the occasion, therefore it has triumphed over Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund. It might be strange but as Flick and his team get, it gives them a feeling both of optimism and discontent.

If the Catalans had been more clinical in front of goal, Atlético could well have been joining the list of impressive victories of the Barça. There were missed attempts at the bar from Pedri, at the wall by Raphinha, attempts by Iñigo Martínez and Fermín López, directly at Jan Oblak, respectively, and finally an early promising header by Gavi that sailed over the bar while De Paul leveled the score. It was bad when Marc Casadó lost the ball after receiving a cross from Julián Álvarez and De Paul capitalized on it.

After the equalizer, Barça could had opportunities to reconquer the lead again. Raphinha and Pedri had to make a forced break, and later Dani Olmo was pretty close too. Though some of such chances went aghast or intercepted by the ever-reliable Oblak for Atletico Madrid between the sticks.

"It's obvious we have a great goalkeeper," Atlético coach Diego Simeone said after the game, "Jan was hugely important."

During the entire match Atletico had only occasional brilliant chances and in the first part of the match it barely threatened the Chelsea goal. They were unable to make a shot at all throughout the first half. Their first attempt at this goal was with De Paul equalizer. Later, Pablo Barrios nearly scored with a rather good shot and Iñaki Peña pulled off an amazing reflex save. Still, Barça seemed confident about being able to clinch the occasion at the approach of the six minutes added time.

However, Atlético’s speciality of doing heroic things in the last minutes of the match is overshadowed by Hansi Flick’s pre-match words. He might have underrated their predictability but as he said, they could still score in the last couple of seconds. De Paul’s goal meant that Atletico has now scored 13 goals after the 80th minute across all competitions: to win games or rescue draws. They received their label of a team that thrives in adversity as recently as two weeks ago following their thrilling second half come-from-behind 4-3 win over Sevilla, which featured a breathtaking 94th minute goal by Antonio Griezmann.

"It shows also that Atlético is an experienced team and they just waiting for this and for them, it's enough. We played a brilliant match," Flick said, "It was really unbelievable how we played. This is how I want to see my team. Our style, how we want to play, it was really great. I am proud.

So, by claiming the seventh successive victory in the La Liga match, the Atletico will become the best team in Spain by the end of the year 2024 no matter the results of the match between Real Madrid and Sevilla on Sunday. It is still blazing even today. Opposite to the tragic air of the season wearing the Barça uniform, there are unequivocal proofs of the team’s domination: not only the top of the charts, but the numbers as well.

Atletico meanwhile goes from strength to strength and Barça look a shadow of their former selves – every statistic painted a picture of a side that is struggling with Homework and missing a heck of a lot of chances. It is the saga of two sides moving in disparate paths – while Atletico entrenched itself this year as the new measuring stick for Spanish football success.

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