Atlético Madrid’s spectacular first-half efficiency earned them a 4-0 victory over Barcelona within the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg on the Metropolitano.
Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman and Julian Alvarez added to Atletico’s jubilation after Eric Garcia’s personal objective sparked an early begin.
Coach Giuliano Simeone examined Joao Garcia early on, however the goalkeeper was caught within the sixth minute. Eric Garcia gave him a blind again cross, however he let it roll to his toes and was unable to scramble the ball off the road.
Eight minutes later, former Barcelona participant Griezmann prolonged Atletico’s result in two targets. This drifted to the appropriate, the place Nahuel Molina teed up the Frenchman and fired a low ball into the underside left nook.
Fermín López then hit the bar and Barcelona tried to hit again, however Alvarez noticed his shot cleared on the road by Jules Kounde. Molina’s shot then went over the bar, however Lookman added a 3rd objective within the thirty third minute, curling Alvarez’s deft lay-off into the underside proper nook.
Lookman hit again within the second minute of first-half stoppage time, scoring the Argentine’s first objective since early December.
Pau Kvarsi thought he had pulled one again six minutes into the second half, however Robert Lewandowski was dominated offside within the build-up and the objective was dominated out after a prolonged VAR test.
Atlético continued to dominate and Barcelona’s sport worsened within the eighty fifth minute when Eric Garcia caught Alex Baena in a excessive deal with, with the defender’s yellow card upgraded to a crimson after a VAR evaluation.
Huge win within the first leg!! pic.twitter.com/uVugkAPx9p
— Atletico Madrid (@atletienglish) February 12, 2026
Information report: Atlético dismantles Barcelona’s Excessive Line
Previous to this match, Atlético had misplaced all of their last-four dwelling matches in opposition to Barcelona, however they took a good lead within the second leg on March 3.
That is a minimum of the second time because the 2004-05 season that Barcelona have conceded 4 targets at half-time. The one different time this occurred was within the Champions League in August 2020, within the 8-2 win over Bayern Munich within the quarter-finals.
Atlético continued to assault Barcelona’s excessive line and had a deserved victory with an anticipated targets (xG) of two.33 on 12 photographs. Atlético, alternatively, recorded simply 1.02 xG on 14 photographs.
But it surely was a sport to recollect for Eric Garcia, who grew to become the primary Barcelona participant since a minimum of the 2004-05 season to attain an personal objective and be despatched off in the identical match.
