Barcelona suffered a severe defeat, Thursday, 4-0, against Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Spanish Cup semi-final, after a historically disastrous first half, according to Opta figures, bringing Simeone’s team close to reaching the final before the return match on March 3.
Published on: 02/13/2026 - 00:40Last updated: 02/13/2026 - 12:56
To view this content from YouTube, it is necessary to allow the collection of viewing rates and YouTube ads.
It appears that an application in your Internet browser is preventing the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must cancel its use.
Barcelona, the defending champion, suffered a harsh loss on Thursday against its host Atletico Madrid, 4-0, on Thursday in the first leg of the Spanish Football Cup semi-final, bringing the capital team close to reaching the final before the return match on March 3.
Argentine coach Diego Simeone's team took advantage of the weakness of the Catalan defense in the best possible way, and was able to score four goals in the first half alone.
The beginning was very difficult for Barcelona, as it found itself trailing from the sixth minute to a friendly fire goal, after Eric Garcia returned the ball to his goalkeeper, Joan Garcia, who made a mistake in controlling it and it went into the net.
As the Madrid pressure continued, Barcelona conceded the second goal in the 14th minute by Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, the former Catalan team player, after a pass from Argentine Nahuel Molina.
Fermin Lopes tried to reduce the difference and give the visitors the opportunity to return to the atmosphere of the match, but his shot hit the crossbar in the 20th minute, before the danger moved to the other side when Argentine Julián Alvarez almost added the third goal, but Frenchman Jules Conde saved the situation by clearing the ball from the goal line (24).
Read also: Lamine Yamal and Araujo lead Barcelona to overcome Albacete, the conqueror of Real Madrid
The Rojiblancos fans did not have to wait long, as Atletico translated their advantage with a third goal, scored by Nigerian newcomer Ademola Lookman, with a beautiful shot after a pass from Alvarez in the 30th minute.
German coach Hansi Flick sought to change the course of the match, so he brought in veteran Polish striker Robert Lewandowski instead of Mark Casado in the 37th minute.
However, the substitution did not change the reality, as Barcelona received the fourth goal before the end of the first half via a wonderful shot from Alvarez following a perfect pass from Lookman (45+2).
According to the statistics company Opta, Barcelona has only conceded four goals in one half since at least the 2004-2005 season, and that was against Bayern Munich when they lost 2-8 in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in Lisbon in August 2020 during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Barcelona thought it had reduced the gap in the 51st minute through Pau Cobarci after executing a free kick from Lewandowski, but VAR intervened, and after a review that lasted more than five minutes, the goal was canceled due to the Catalan defender being offside.
After that, Atletico moved to its preferred method of tightly closing its defensive areas, which complicated Barcelona's task of reaching the penalty area and trying to maintain its hopes of defending its title, and then its situation was further complicated by the expulsion of Alex Garcia with a red card in the 85th minute.
France 24/AFP
Keywords related to the article
The content you want to browse is no longer in service or is currently unavailable.
