A good start for the Spanish champions Atletico Madrid

Barcelona begins the post-Messi era with an attacking performance

Barcelona players greet their fans after the big win over Real Sociedad.

EPA

Atlético Madrid started the title defense campaign in the best way by defeating Celta Vigo 2-1, the day before yesterday, in the first stage of the Spanish Football League, which witnessed a great victory for Barcelona over Real Sociedad 4-2 in its first official test. In the era after Argentine star Lionel Messi, who moved to Paris Saint-Germain, France.

In the first match, Diego Simeone's team, who started the match by keeping Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez on the bench, owes his victory at the beginning of the season to Argentine Angel Correa, who scored the two goals.

Correa opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with a long shot, after benefiting from a distinguished effort and a pass by Frenchman Thomas Lemar.

With the beginning of the second half, the capital club found itself at the same distance from its host, after the latter received a penalty kick as a result of a handball inside the forbidden area on Marcos Llorente, so Iago Aspas successfully beat Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Polak (59).

But Correa put Atletico back in the lead again in the 63rd minute when the ball reached him, following a quick counter-attack from Saul Nigues, advancing on the left flank.

According to "Opta" statistics, Korea raised its score to seven goals in its last nine matches in the league, which is one more than the number of goals he scored in the 49 games before this series.

Barcelona started the post-Messi era positively by beating Real Sociedad 4-2 thanks to a double by Martin Braithwaite.

The Catalan club, and its Dutch coach, Ronald Koeman, played the first official match since the decision to separate between “Blaugrana” and the best player in the world six times due to the salary ceiling that prevented the renewal of his contract in order to avoid threatening the club’s budget, according to club president Joan Laporta.

Koeman's men, who finished third last season behind the poles of the capital Atletico and Real, made a convincing performance against Sociedad, who suffered their 24th consecutive defeat in the league at the home of their Catalan rival, especially since the 1-1 draw on April 9, 1995.

Barcelona has maintained its tradition in the opening matches at home, as it has lost only once, dating back to 1939, against its neighbor Espanyol, according to "Opta" for statistics.

Amid the resentment of the fans, some of whom demanded the departure of Laporta, to blame him for the departure of Messi, Barcelona imposed its preference with the participation of Dutch newcomer Memphis Depay mainly, and the absence of the other newcomer Argentine Sergio Aguero injured.

acclimatization to newcomers

Barcelona player Pique said that "the new arrivals are adapting well, and the fans support us because they want to see football (after they missed last season due to the Corona virus)."

Turning to Messi's departure and the audience's reaction, he said: "I was expecting their reaction.

We know what Leo stands for, but this is a thing of the past and we have to move on.

We will be very competitive and we will fight for titles until the end.

We will miss his talent (Messi), but we proved that we can play as a group, we can score goals, and we are good in the back line.

I think we will enjoy this season.”

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news