Joao Felix’s winning goal for Barcelona vs. Atletico Madrid could be sign he’s finally settling in

Joao Felix once again came to FC Barcelona’s rescue on Sunday, scoring the lone goal in the team’s 1-0 win over his parent club Atletico Madrid. Raphinha made a smart run from around the halfway line to the penalty box, and then smoothly passed the ball through traffic for Felix, who was making his own run on his teammate’s left. As Felix approached the touchline, he quickly found an opportunity to flick the ball over Jan Oblak and scored in the 28th minute.

It was an effective outing for the Portuguese player, who is currently on loan from Atleti. He had three shots for Barcelona on Sunday, behind only Robert Lewandowski’s five.

The goal also comes a few short days after he tallied Barcelona’s game-winning goal in their UEFA Champions League match against Porto on Tuesday, which allowed them to clinch a berth in the round of 16. He had five shots that day, behind only Raphinha with eight attempts at goal.

The new goalscoring streak allowed him to properly introduce himself to the Barcelona faithful after his headline-making move to the club on transfer deadline day. He has not made much of a dent for La Liga’s reigning champions this season — he has just two league goals in 12 league games despite notching 4.18 expected goals so far.

He has outperformed his expected goals performance in the Champions League this season, though, with three goals in five games off an expected goals tally of just 1.56. Two of those goals, though, came in Barcelona’s 5-0 win over Antwerp in their group stage opener.

Sunday’s performance could provide the foundation for Felix to emerge as a top contributor for Barcelona, but his outing in the last week has allowed them to reverse course after a rough patch. The team came into the Porto match with just two wins in their last five, including a loss to Shakhtar Donetsk in European play and a 1-1 draw against Rayo Vallecano but responded with two big wins.

The team still left a little bit to be desired in attack during their wins over Porto and Atleti, though. Barcelona outperformed Porto throughout but had 21 shots but just seven on target, mustering only 1.89 expected goals in the process. A similar story played out against Atleti, when they had 13 shots but just two on target for an expected goals tally of 2.36, while their opponents had two more shots on target from just nine shots.

Barcelona currently sit third in La Liga, four points behind league leaders Real Madrid, and next take on second place Girona next weekend.