Atletico Madrid 4-0 Barcelona: Simeone’s side run riot in Copa del Rey semifinal first leg

Madrid, Spain — Atletico Madrid authored the finest 45 minutes of their campaign to date, shredding Barcelona 4-0 in Thursday’s Copa del Rey semifinal first leg at a raucous Estadio Metropolitano and flipping a lopsided recent rivalry on its head.

The rout began inside seven minutes when goalkeeper Joan García misjudged a routine back-pass from Eric García, allowing the ball to trickle over the line for an own goal. Before the quarter-hour mark Antoine Griezmann, facing his former club, finished a sweeping counter to make it 2-0 and could have had a hat-trick by the half-hour mark.

Ademola Lookman added the third in the 33rd minute, capping a move that again featured every member of Diego Simeone’s daring four-man attack. Julian Álvarez, goal-shy since November, emphatically ended his drought in first-half stoppage time, smashing a low drive past the exposed Joan García. The four-goal deficit at the break matched Barca’s worst collapse since 2004-05, replicating the 2-8 Champions League humiliation against Bayern Munich in August 2020.

Barcelona briefly thought they had clawed one back early in the second period when Pau Cubarsi tucked home, yet an eight-minute VAR review ruled Robert Lewandowski offside in the build-up. Cubarsi’s night soured further in the 85th minute when his initial yellow for a foul on Álex Baena was upgraded to red, leaving the visitors with ten men for the closing stages.

Simeone’s gamble to start Griezmann, Álvarez, Lookman and Giuliano Simeone together paid spectacular dividends, overwhelming a Barca side missing injured forwards Raphinha and Marcus Rashford. Hansi Flick’s reshuffle—Ferran Torres as a false nine flanked by Fermín López and Dani Olmo—never found traction, and the coach acknowledged the miscue by introducing Lewandowski for midfielder Marc Casado after just 36 minutes.

The result gives Atletico a commanding lead ahead of next week’s return at Montjuïc and serves notice that Simeone’s men, written off after a limp loss to Real Betis last weekend, remain serious contenders on three fronts.

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