Atlético Madrid vs Barcelona, Copa del Rey: Final Score 0-1 (4-5 agg), Barça advance to Spanish Cup Final with tough road win

Barcelona are through to the 2025 Copa del Rey Final thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win in the second leg of their semi-final tie against Atlético Madrid at the Estadio Metropolitano on Wednesday night. Barça earned the lead after totally dominating the first half and showed tremendous fighting spirit and resilience to survive a much improved Atlético in the second, and Ferran Torres’ goal was enough to book a spot in the title match against Real Madrid in Seville at the end of this month.

FIRST HALF

Diego Simeone’s men came out with the exact approach you’d expect from a team desperate to save their season: the Colchoneros were aggressive and physical from the start, pressing very high and making some rough challenges to try and set the tone for the night.

They were lucky to escape without a red card in the first 10 minutes as both César Azpilicueta and Rodrigo De Paul tackled Raphinha high with their studs up, and the referee was even called to the screen but decided not to leave the home team with 10 men early on.

Barça’s response was to simply weather the early storm, take control of the ball and completely dominate the rest of the half, forcing Atleti to defend deeper and deeper as the Blaugrana moved the ball with purpose and found spaces inside the final third to create good chances.

They took the lead shortly before the half-hour mark when Lamine Yamal played a sensational through ball to find Ferran Torres who scored the opener with a neat finish, and the Catalans had at least three excellent opportunities to double their lead but couldn’t quite apply the finishing touch.

Atlético looked more and more desperate and out of ideas as they simply couldn’t get the ball back to try and hurt Barça on the counter, and began fouling time and time again which led to an accumulation of yellow cards and a growing sense of anger and frustration from the team, Simeone and the fans, making the atmosphere very tense in the stadium in final minutes of the half.

The halftime whistle came to end a period thoroughly dominated by Barça, who were 45 minutes away from the title match if they could maintain their composure and their control of the game. But Atleti would surely not go down without a fight, and the second half promised to be tense and intense as the hosts looked to stay alive by any means necessary.

SECOND HALF

Simeone went to work at halftime and made three substitutions and a formation switch, going to a more attacking 3-4-3 shape and convincing his team to play actual football with good width, a strong presence in the box in the form of Alexander Sorloth and effective high pressing out of possession.

Barça simply could not get to grips with all of Atleti’s changes and struggled to keep hold of the ball, losing possession in dangerous positions and allowing real chances at the back. Sorloth missed a huge one-on-one opportunity six minutes into the half, and Atleti’s equalizer seemed like a matter of time.

Barça managed to slow down the pace of the game a bit in the next 10 minutes, and Hansi Flick made two changes at the hour mark with Ronald Araujo and Eric García coming on to try and solidify the midfield and add more strength and height at the backline to deal with Sorloth’s threat. The Norwegian striker almost scored his customary goal against Barça with 20 minutes to go, but it was ruled out for offside.

Atlético continued to increase the pressure heading into the final 15 minutes, and Flick sent on Robert Lewandowski looking to add a more physical presence up front to relieve some of the burden faced by the Barça defense. The change worked and the Catalans finally had some extended periods of possession for the first time in the second half, and had more numbers forward and some touches in the opposition box to keep Atleti honest.

Both teams looked visibly exhausted as we reached the final five minutes, and Barça became more and more defensive to try and protect their narrow lead. Flick brought on Gerard Martín in place of Yamal for extra protection at the back, and the Blaugrana’s only purpose was to waste time at the end.

The plan worked despite Atlético sending several crosses into the box at the death, but Araujo and his teammates did enough to secure the clean sheet as the final whistle came to send Barça to Seville on April 26, where they will meet Real Madrid for the third time this season with the Spanish Cup trophy on the line.

The four-game season series against Atlético is over, and the Colchoneros gave Barça everything they could handle in 2024-25. But thank goodness we don’t have to play them again for a little while.

Well done, boys!

Atlético: Musso; Llorente, Azpilicueta (Lenglet 46’), Giménez, Le Normand (Molina 58’), Reinildo (Galán 46’); De Paul, Barrios, Simeone (Sorloth 46’); Alvarez, Griezmann (Riquelme 81’)

Goals: None

Barcelona: Szczesny; Kounde, Cubarsí (Araujo 58’), Iñigo, Balde; Fermín (Eric 58’), De Jong, Pedri; Yamal (Martín 86’), Ferran (Lewandowski 74’), Raphinha

Goal: Ferran (27’)

Click here to read article