Partey’s Atletico Madrid denied a point by brilliant Messi strike

Thomas Partey played from start to finish as Atletico Madrid lost 1-0 to Barcelona in a keenly contested La Liga clash at the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday night in which Lionel Messi was the hero.

Los Rojiblancos were winless in their last 18 league matches against the Blaugrana, and Partey got the first booking of the match in the eighth minute for a rough challenge on Ivan Rakitic.

Both sides huffed and puffed for the rest of the match until Messi popped up in the 86th minute with a fine goal from outside the penalty box that left Atleti goalkeeper Jan Oblak for dead.

Partey had 63 touches in the match, the third most in the Atleti team. His passing accuracy of 85.1% from 40 passes was the fourth highest.

The 26-year old Ghanaian successfully played seven of nine long balls while he won his only aerial duel, and won four of eight ground duels.

Partey was very astute defensively, making one clearance, three tackles and five interceptions.

The result sees Atletico drop down to the sixth spot, behind Basque clubs Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao.

The Spanish capital club will hope to make amends when they travel to Villarreal on Friday.

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? #AtletiBarça
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— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) December 1, 2019