Atletico Madrid fell to a frustrating defeat against Barcelona, and will feel they had chances to take at least a draw away from Camp Nou. After the match, Diego Simeone was disappointed but sanguine about his side’s performance, which leaves Los Colchoneros on the outside of the title race picture again.

They now lie six points behind Barcelona, and five behind city rivals Real Madrid. Should Villarreal win their game in hand, the Yellow Submarine will be their closest challengers, and four points ahead of Los Rojiblancos themselves. A quick trip to Zamsino.Casino would explain that Atletico’s title chances have taken a hit following their outing at Camp Nou.

There were some reasons for optimism though. Atletico competed well, despite an injury to Johnny Cardoso scuppering their plans, and Nahuel Molina continued his good form, deputising for Marcos Llorente. The other major positive came in the form of Alex Baena.

Somewhat tragically, he was forced off with injury in the second half after 62 minutes of action. It was his goal that opened the scoring, timing his run perfectly to latch onto a Molina pass, and showing consummate composure to lift the ball past Joan Garcia one-on-one.

Baena has had the opening of his Atletico career interrupted by an appendicitis problem, but on his return, showed his chops for the big game, assisting Antoine Griezmann for the final goal in their 5-2 demolition of Real Madrid. That match was defined by Julian Alvarez’s hat-trick, but since, the Argentina international has struggled to impose himself on matches, particularly away from home.

Inversely, Baena’s influence has been growing with every week at Atletico. An all action creative midfielder, Simeone has seen fit to deliver the keys to this Atletico side to Baena, playing him in behind Alvarez. The latter has generally preferred to play with a strike partner, but Baena’s quality and influence has meant that restricting him to one of the wider roles, and the deeper defensive duties that come with it, makes less and less sense.

Simeone has been keen to emphasize that Alvarez is ‘the most important player at the club’, and there is little doubt that the club is committed to ensuring he is the face of Atletico in the coming years. Yet the pitch is the ultimate arbiter, and Baena’s performance at Camp Nou showed that he has the quality and character to be Alvarez’s co-star. That much is evident in Simeone’s line-ups.