FC Barcelona overcame Atletico Madrid in convincing fashion in front of the Montjuic crowd. Ending the game through a 1-0 scoreline coupled with a brilliantly dominant display, Barcelona made no mistake in playing their best brand of football yet this season.
However, even as they came out as victors from this game, some changes took place that were not exactly expected. For La Blaugrana, the original starting eleven that was officially announced looked a bit different from the one that was ultimately fielded.
Inigo Martinez was initially expected to start the game and was announced as one of the starting central defenders. However, as officially announced by Barcelona, he felt discomfort during the warm-up and had to be replaced by Andreas Christensen.
However, as highlighted by SPORT, the change was simply to prevent an injury rather than to sideline an injured Martinez. The Spanish veteran reportedly suffered only discomfort and while additional tests will be conducted, it does not seem serious.
Xavi himself also spoke about Inigo’s change following the match, (h/t BarcaCentre), stating: “He has discomfort in his biceps. Tomorrow more tests will be conducted and we hope it’s nothing.”
In his stead, Andreas Christensen managed to get a chance. The Danish defender would go on to prove that even he remains a great contender for a starting role in the team. Defensively calculated and accurate with his passes, he helped Barcelona quite a lot in securing the win against Atletico.
Inigo, on the other hand, would have ensured that Barcelona repeated the exact same lineup that was chosen against Porto if he had started this time around.
However, a constant flurry of games with no rest in between likely led to fatigue and thus the recent discomfort. He will now have a week to recover, however, before Barcelona face Girona.
