Sorloth, the ogre who comes off the bench to terrify Barça: five goals in the last five games

Diego Simeone 's substitute is the whip that punishes Barcelona. Alexander Sorloth (Trondheim, 1995) is the giant who rescues Atlético de Madrid from the edge of the abyss. Nobody scares the Blaugrana team like the Norwegian. The strong centre forward has scored five goals for the Catalan team in the last five games played and, almost always, he has done so coming off the bench or in added time.

What happened in the madness of last Tuesday at the Olympic stadium of Montjuic is a story that has been repeated. Sorloth, after replacing Griezmann in the 67th minute, came on to equalise the first leg of the semi-finals of the Cup. In the 93rd minute he scored the equaliser (4-4) and put Atlético on the launch pad for the return leg at the Metropolitano.

Barça were once again thrashed by the Nordic striker, as happened in this season's league match, also played on the Olympic mountain. In December he scored the 1-2 in Atlético's victory, in the 96th minute. In the 2023-24 season he scored the definitive 3-5 in Villarreal 's victory, in the 99th minute. In that same season he also scored in Villarreal's 2-4 defeat at La Cerámica. In his last campaign with Real Sociedad (2022-23), he also achieved victory at the Camp Nou by 1-2, scoring in the 72nd minute.

Pinedo and the final stretch

Sorloth is Simeone's go-to for desperate moments. Seven of his 13 goals have been scored after the 80th minute . The winning shot in the final round is the weapon of the Norwegian and of the red-and-white team itself. In the Copa del Rey, Atlético has 19 goals, nine of them in the last quarter of an hour . In the League, 17 of the 42 scored came after the 75th minute. In the Champions League, there were five of 20. In total, 31 of the 81 scored were achieved in the final stretch, something that says a lot about the physical preparation of the group, an area that is now directed by Luis Piñedo , substitute for Profe Ortega .

Atlético is the team in the major European leagues with the most goals, across all competitions, after the 80th minute, with a total of 28, of which 16 were decisive in achieving 11 victories and three draws .

Attention deficits

In the final minutes of matches, Simeone's tactical changes and decisive substitutions from the bench are very profitable. Barcelona are well aware of this, as they face the return leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final after squandering a good lead. Hansi Flick 's team shines with their play, but they often show a lack of attention in the pre- and post-match periods.

Of the 45 goals conceded this season, 18 of them (40%) came in the first 10 minutes or the last 10, plus added time. This tendency to switch off at the beginning or end has been evident in 14 of the 45 matches, reports Efe.

Simeone feels comfortable in long games and Flick struggles to close out games. The yin and yang.