Atlético Madrid v Barcelona: La Liga – live! | Football

12 mins: Barca enjoy their first sustained spell of possession, but they meet a brick wall each time they try any really penetrative passing. De Jong tries something different, running in behind from midfield, but he’s eased away from the ball by a vigilant Hermoso.

9 mins: Atletico are on top here, and are getting joy down their right. He feeds a lovely pass into the box to Morata, who holds off Pique, swivels and fires in a shot that needs saving. Corner.

6 mins: Trippier picks out Correa down the right, who wins a corner. After a scrambled clearance, it breaks wide to Hermoso, and his driven cross hits first Lenglet and then the far post. That could have gone anywhere.

5 mins: Herrera intercepts a Suarez pass and stays ice-cool under pressure from De Jong to play it out from the back. Nice. But Barca are pressing with vigour.

3 mins: The stadium erupts in fierce whistles as Griezmann gets his first touch. No real rhythm to either side’s play so far: it’s been belting it down here, and the pitch it soaking.

1 min: And we’re off. Thomas Partey belts it into the mixer, and Atletico win a series of throw-ins, ending when Morata tries a ludicrously hopeful long ranger that trickles wide.

The teams are out. Handshakes are exchanged and the managers share a friendly hug. That’s the niceties over with.

So Antoine Griezmann starts – replacing the injured Ousmane Dembele – but with Ivan Rakitic coming in for the suspended Sergio Busquets, we have a Barcelona midfield with precisely none of the Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets trio that pretty much defined the club’s previous decade and a half. Which isn’t exactly new, but is still weird.

An attacking lineup from Simeone, too, with both Joao Felix and Alvaro Morata up top – they’ll fancy their chances against this Barca defence. But will Atletico look to take the game to the visitors (which is what Barcelona are least comfortable dealing with), or soak up the pressure and spring on the counter (which is what they are most comfortable doing)?

Some pre-match reading, from Sid Lowe, on the strange riddle of Barcelona:

Atletico Madrid: Oblak; Trippier, Hermoso, Felipe, Saúl; Correa, Herrera, Thomas, Koke; Joao Félix, Morata

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Roberto, Lenglet, Piqué, Junior Firpo; Rakitic, Arthur, De Jong; Messi, Suárez, Griezmann

Are Barcelona European football’s weirdest team? For a start, they’re nothing like the tirelessly scurrying, ball-hogging, even-greater-than-the-sum-of-their-parts team that we became used to for so many years. Instead, this lot are a tad scruffy in possession. Not the most willing pressers. And reliant on flashes of individual magic rather than the slow asphyxiation of collective dominance.

Nothing wrong with that, except it doesn’t leave you much to fall back on if your big men don’t turn up. Luckily Barcelona have a big man who rarely fails to turn up – although even Lionel Messi is raising more than his fair share of questions this season: does his brilliance when he has the ball justify his doing absolutely nothing when he doesn’t? And at what point does the repeated struggles of the forwards brought in to play alongside him start to point towards an awkward common denominator?

So far, Barcelona have been muddling along with a Keeganesque “You score four, we’ll score five” approach, but today they meet their direct opposites in Atlético Madrid, who have the best defence in the league but the lowest-scoring attack outside the bottom six. Unstoppable force? Immoveable object?

Victory for these sides’ common enemy last night means that Barça must win to reclaim top spot, while a win for Atlético would draw them level on points with their opponents. Last year, it took a last-minute goal from Ousmane Dembele to deny them the win – but last year they could also count on Antoine Griezmann, whose summer defection means he lines up for the visitors tonight. What more motivation should Diego Simeone’s men need? Strap in.

Kick-off 8pm BST.