Atletico Madrid 4-0 Barcelona
Atletico Madrid put in their most impressive performance of the season as they swept aside Barcelona at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final tie.
The home side opened the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes, and they did so in bizarre circumstances. Minutes after making a brilliant save to deny Giuliano Simeone, Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia gifted a goal to Atleti. He failed to control a back-pass from Eric Garcia, and the ball rolled over the line before he could palm it away – it would not have mattered anyway, as the loose ball was turned home by Ademola Lookman.
8 minutes later, it got even better for Atleti, who went 2-0 up. Nahuel Molina cut the ball back to Antoine Griezmann, who took the ball away from two Barcelona players before finding the far corner, which sent the home supporters inside the Riyadh Air Metropolitano into raptures.
Atleti made it 3-0 on 33 minutes. Another mistake in the Barcelona defence ended with Julian Alvarez slipping in Ademola Lookman, who made it goals in back-to-back Copa del Rey matches. Los Colchoneros would then complete the scoring in first half stoppage time when Alvarez ended his goal drought with a fine strike from the edge of the penalty area.
Barcelona need a response in the second half to give themselves any chance of getting back into the tie, and they thought they had scored the next goal on 52 minutes. Pau Cubarsi finished well after the back broke his way inside the penalty area, which made the scoreline 4-1. However, after a VAR check that lasted eight minutes, it was ruled that he was offside.
A miserable evening for the visitors was compounded late on when Eric was sent off after a foul on Alex Baena. A yellow card was initially shown, but it was upgraded to red after referee Juan Martinez consulted with VAR.
Barcelona need another special Remontada to reach final
Atleti will be firm favourites to reach the final, as they go in search for the Copa del Rey title. However, they will need to face a big response from Barcelona, who will go with everything during the second leg at the Spotify Camp Nou.
