Madrid (AFP)

Three penalties, two disappointed: in a rebounding match, Atlético Madrid and FC Barcelona failed to decide (2-2) Tuesday evening during the 33rd day of Liga, and pave the way for the title at Real Madrid, alone in the lead.

Will the La Liga title be decided by a man with a whistle? With three penalties whistled Tuesday evening, two transformed by Saul for Atlético (19th, 62nd) and one by Lionel Messi (50th) for Barça after his almost direct corner (11th), referee Hernandez Hernandez made the task of the Real Madrid, which receives Getafe on Thursday (8:00 p.m. GMT) and which now sits alone in the lead, with a target of potentially four points ahead of its rival Barça in the event of a victory.

- Three or even four penalties -

Lionel Messi did everything possible by offering twice the advantage to the Catalans, but nothing worked: the Atlético of an untenable Yannick Carrasco hung on playing as she knows how to do it, with her "grinta ", returning twice to the score.

The corner of captain blaugrana Lionel Messi (11th) was slightly diverted by Sergio Busquets then by Diego Costa, who cheated Jan Oblak by deflecting the ball into his own cages at the start of the match.

And five minutes later, it was still not Diego Costa's party, but Yannick Carrasco's: the Belgian overflowed on the left side Arturo Vidal, who mowed him. The penalty is drawn by the Hispanic-Brazilian, and stopped by Marc-André ter Stegen.

But the referee warns the German goalkeeper of Barça for having left his line too early, and orders to withdraw the penalty. Saul does it, and equalizes by shooting at the same place as Diego Costa a few seconds earlier (19th).

"He became the vertical Carrasco we knew, determining towards the opponent's goal. He had already played a good match against Bilbao (1-1 on June 14), and today is probably his best match since he returned to the club, "rejoiced Diego Siemone about the Belgian international in a post-match press conference.

Three whistled penalties, or rather four therefore, counting this first attempt to withdraw.

In the 50th, Messi scored his 700th career goal (630 with Barça and 70 with the Argentine national team) with a magnificent panenka on penalty kick, after Felipe had very slightly caught Nelson Semedo in the box.

But Saul replied ... again on penalty (62nd), whistled after a small pike from Semedo on Carrasco.

- Setién, in the hot seat -

A draw strewn with whistles, which does not help anyone: Barça, who got lost in locker room disputes this weekend and disappointing results (three draws and three wins since the resumption on June 11), has almost said goodbye to his title chances ... and puts on a volcano his trainer Quique Setién, hired in January in place of Ernesto Valverde to give new life to the blaugrana game, and make him find his missing DNA.

A mission he is not accomplishing, given the lack of brilliance of the game proposed this Tuesday by the Catalans, in a Camp Nou less empty than usual, adorned with thousands of T-shirts flocked to names of supporters installed in the stands for this poster.

And the tacticians' choices are more than ever misunderstood, when he decided to leave the international and French world champion Antoine Griezmann on the bench for the whole match, only to bring him in at the ... 90th minute .

"It is true that it is hard to bring him in this way, for a player of his level. But circumstances forced me to do that. (...) Tomorrow, I will speak with him. I will not apologize to him, because it is a decision that I must accept, but I am sure that it is a decision that he will understand, because he is a great player ", maintained Quique Setién Tuesday evening in conference of post-match press.

"Remember one thing, we are Barça and it is not all over yet. Fighting to the end is part of our DNA," Catalan defender Gerard Piqué wrote on social media on Sunday a few days ago. after saying that it would now be "very difficult to win this Liga" on Movistar +.

Atlético, for its part, stops there its beautiful series of four victories of row in Liga. The Colchoneros, in full swing since the resumption of the championship, now hold solidly their third place in Liga, while they were distanced from European places at the beginning of 2020. For Simeone, "the year of transition" will have lasted six months.

© 2020 AFP