Atlético de Madrid vs FC Barcelona
Competition/Round: 2025-26 Copa del Rey, Semi-Finals, 1st Leg
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Gavi, Pedri, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen (out)
Atlético Outs & Doubts: Johnny Cardoso, Pablo Barrios (out), Nico González (doubt)
Barcelona Form Guide: WWWWW
Atlético Form Guide: WLDWL
Date/Time: Thursday, February 12, 2026, 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Friday)
Venue: Riyadh Air Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain
Referee: Juan Martínez Munuera
VAR: Pablo González Fuertes
How to watch on TV: Not Available (USA), ITV4 (UK), Sporty TV (Nigeria), TVE La 1 (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), RTVE Play (Spain), others
Following a comfortable win over Mallorca to retain top spot in the La Liga table at the weekend, Barcelona return to action for a huge Copa del Rey semi-final first leg against Atlético Madrid at the Metropolitano on Thursday night.
With all due respect to the other two semi-finalists in Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad, who are huge clubs with amazing fanbases and really talented players, this is the real final of this season’s Spanish Cup. Both Barça and Atlético would be considered favorites on a neutral site against either of the Basque giants, so these two battles between the Blaugrana and the Rojiblancos will pretty much decide the entire tournament.
These two teams were in the Spanish Super Cup and benefitted from the new rules of the Copa del Rey that make sure the four clubs that played in the Supercopa would always draw the lowest remaining seeds in the first three rounds, which is why Barça will face a La Liga team for the first time while Atleti had to wait until the quarter-finals to meet a fellow top-flight side Real Betis, a team they destroyed in very impressive fashion last week in Seville.
Atleti went on to lose to that same Betis team in Madrid in La Liga action at the weekend, and those two matches perfectly encapsulate Atleti’s season: they can look like world-beaters in one game and completely forget how to play football in the very next one, which is why it is virtually impossible to predict which version of Simeone’s team we’ll get on Thursday.
The first meeting between these two at Camp Nou earlier this season saw a pretty poor version of Atlético, who did take the lead but were dominated pretty much from start to finish by a Barça side that scored three goals but could have easily found the net a couple more times. But Atleti have proven in multiple occasions this season that they can be really dangerous at their best, and they’ll be desperate for a good result in the first leg at home which might force them to be more attacking than usual.
January signing Ademola Lookman has hit the ground running and has helped make up for the awful run of form of star forward Julián Alvarez, but the absence of the excellent Pablo Barrios in midfield through injury is the real highlight news for Atleti, who have no great replacement for the young Spaniard and might struggle to win the midfield battle against the Frenkie de Jong-led Barça.
It’s easy to get carried away by the inconsistencies of Atleti’s season and think they are not going to be the same nightmare opponent that pushed Barça to their very limit in their four meetings last season, but they have way too much talent and way too good of a coach to be counted out of this tie.
One thing is for certain: any realistic chance of getting past Barça relies heavily on a strong result at home, so the Catalans must be ready for a hungry, intense and desperate Atleti that will play with real urgency and treat the first 90 minutes of this tie like an actual final.
This should be really fun. Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Joan; Kounde, Cubarsí, Eric, Balde; De Jong, Bernal; Yamal, Olmo, Fermín; Ferran
Atlético (4-4-2): Musso; Llorente, Pubill, Hancko, Ruggeri; Simeone, Mendoza, Koke, Lookman; Alvarez, Griezmann
PREDICTION
Because Atlético badly need a result at home and will be more attacking than usual, I have a feeling this will be a highly entertaining game full of chances and goals with everything left to be decided at Camp Nou: 2-2 draw.
