Fermín López marked his 100th La Liga appearance with both goals in a comeback win over a title rival. Barcelona beat Atlético Madrid 2-1 at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid on Sunday, November 8, to stay top of Spain’s first division with 33 points from 12 games.
Atlético led after 10 minutes and, had that score held, would have gone top themselves. Instead Barcelona finished the night three points clear of Real Madrid and five clear of Diego Simeone’s side, in front of a crowd of 69,788.
How the match turned
The opening was chaotic. Inside seven minutes, by Barcelona’s own match report, goalkeeper Joan García had stopped Julián Álvarez when the striker ran clear, Atlético defender Marc Pubill had headed a corner onto the crossbar and Pedri had struck the frame of the goal at the other end.
The goal came on the counter. Kang-in Lee fed Álvarez, who squared for Giuliano Simeone, the coach’s son, to finish with his first touch from close range.
Barcelona took over the ball after that and equalized in first-half stoppage time. Pedri carried it through midfield and found López, who needed two tries before beating Jan Oblak with his left foot.
The winner arrived midway through the second half, in the 67th minute by the club’s account, a minute earlier on one published timeline. Lamine Yamal slid a pass behind the defense, López timed his run and swept it in with his right foot. Barcelona then saw out four minutes of added time without alarm.
López handed Yamal a share of the credit. The two read each other well, he said afterward in comments released by the club, and “the goal was half his.”
What the numbers say
Published match statistics show how lopsided the ball was and how even the chances were. Barcelona had 63% of possession and completed 615 passes to Atlético’s 317, and took 19 shots to nine. Yet each team put only four on target, and the expected-goals totals were almost level at 1.60 to 1.53.
The difference was López. He took six of Barcelona’s shots and three of the four that were on target. Álvarez had four attempts for Atlético and one on target.
The table math is simple, and it explains the noise around this fixture. Barcelona kicked off on 30 points and Atlético on 28. A home win would have left Atlético on 31 and Barcelona on 30; the comeback leaves it at 33 against 28, a six-point swing in the gap between the two clubs.
The top of the standings after 12 games each: Barcelona 33, Real Madrid 30, Atlético 28, Real Betis 26. Barcelona have scored 48 league goals, exactly four a game, and conceded 13.
A response to a bad fortnight
Hansi Flick’s team opened the league season with nine straight wins, then lost twice inside a week in late October: 4-2 at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and 2-1 at home to Real Madrid, their only league defeat. Since then they have beaten Alavés 6-1, Aston Villa 3-0 and now Atlético.
There was also a score to settle. Atlético knocked Barcelona out of two cups last season, 4-3 on aggregate in the Copa del Rey semifinals and 3-2 on aggregate in the Champions League quarterfinals. Even so, Barcelona have now won 2-1 on each of their last three visits to the Metropolitano, once in the league and once in Europe in April, and again on Sunday.
Fermín’s road to 100
For readers who know López mainly from Spain’s Olympic gold in 2024, the route to this night ran through the lower divisions:
- 2016: joins Barcelona’s youth academy at 13, having started at his hometown club in El Campillo, in the province of Huelva.
- 2022-23: spends a season on loan at Linares in the Primera Federación and scores 12 league goals.
- August 27, 2023: makes his La Liga debut as an 86th-minute substitute in a 4-3 win at Villarreal.
- November 8, 2026: plays his 100th league game for Barcelona and scores twice, once with each foot.
His online career record now lists 27 goals in those 100 league appearances, seven of them in 11 games this season.
Further reading
Image: Cabeza2000, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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