Barcelona Fail to Secure UCL Top Spot After Atalanta Draw

Europa League champions Atalanta were denied an automatic place in the Champions League last 16 after a 2-2 draw at Barcelona on Wednesday, with Lamine Yamal and Ronald Araujo scoring for the already qualified hosts.

Atalanta, who were missing one of their key scorers, Ademola Lookman, due to a knee injury, dropped to ninth place in the rankings with 15 points and will now compete in the two-legged knockout phase playoff round.

Barcelona, five-time winners who last won the trophy in 2015, had already booked a last-16 spot last week with a stunning 5-4 comeback victory over Benfica. 

"The result was OK," stated Barcelona manager Hansi Flick. "We played against an excellent team with a great philosophy and style of play. We have the confidence to do things differently in the second half. The first goal was like that, and watching the team follow suit was great.

"Of course, we are overjoyed; we finished second, the first step toward the Champions League. The team's second-place finish is a huge success.

Yamal put Barcelona ahead two minutes after the break with a point-blank shot, but Ederson levelled for Atalanta in the 67th minute with a fantastic strike from the edge of the area that went inside the left post.

Defender Araujo restored Barcelona's advantage in the 72nd minute with a header off a corner. Still, Atalanta's Mario Pasalic equalized seven minutes later with a low drive that nutmegged goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

"The only thing is we can defend better as a team," Flick told the crowd. "We need to analyze everything and improve it. We need to work on some areas, and we can achieve even more. Now we'll have a few weeks of training [with no knockout round games].

Atalanta, who had to compete against teams like Arsenal and Real Madrid in the competition's new league phase, will find out their playoff opponents in the draw on Friday, with games scheduled for February 11-12 and February 18-19.