Tej SH
Atletico Madrid faced FC Barcelona for the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final at home and won. The team coached by Diego Simeone managed to score four goals against Barcelona. This would lead them to have a massive advantage against Barca in the away game at Camp Nou.
Trouble began for Barcelona early on in the match. In the 7th minute of the match, defender Eric Garcia managed to net an own goal against Joan Garcia, who let the ball slip away. Trouble seemed imminent for the Culers as French footballer Antoine Griezmann netted a goal which doubled the lead for Atletico in the fourteenth minute. Griezmann was assisted by Molina, the Argentine midfielder.
Further into the match, in the 33rd minute, former Atalanta striker Ademola Lookman scored a goal to triple the misery against the Spanish giants. Lookman was assisted by young Argentine striker Julian Alvarez, who managed to score and add insult to injury against Barcelona. Alvarez was handed the goal by an assist from Lookman, in a poetic manner where the two goal scorers helped each other to score a goal.
While the first half of the match was filled with thrilling excitement, the second half was relatively low on the scoring side. Both teams made smart substitutions, and by the end of the match, due to the intensity of the rivalry between these two teams, there were a total of 7 yellow cards handed out between both teams. While Barca committed 9 fouls, Atleti committed a total of 11 fouls.
However, Barcelona’s disaster of a night was topped off by a late red card to own goal scorer Eric Garcia following a foul against Atletico Madrid number 10, Alex Baena. To further Barca’s bad luck yesterday, a late goal scored by Pau Cubarsi was ruled out as offside by a VAR check.
Fans of Barcelona are extremely furious with the style of play Hansi Flick has adapted, with the high-line offside trap leading to more goals than results. Will Barcelona be able to bounce back from a 4-0 deficit at home, like they have done in the past with clubs like PSG in the Champions League? The answers to all these questions will be answered on the 4th of March.