Atlético Madrid blew FC Barcelona away in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals at the Estadio Metropolitano on Thursday night.
Diego Simeone put on a masterclass in how to dismantle the Catalans with his team taking a 4-0 lead into March’s second leg. All four goals came within a spectacular first half that saw Atleti unlucky not to have even more.
An unfortunate own goal by Eric García kicked off proceedings, with the eternal Antoine Griezmann, new boy Ademola Lookman and star boy Julián
Álvarez completing the rout. Barça had any chances of a second half comeback disrupted by a ridiculous VAR call that ruled out Pau Cubarsí’s 52nd minute lifeline. Things went from bad to worse for Eric as he was sent off late on and will be suspended for the second leg.
Fast starts to big matches
What I would give to be in a Simeone dressing room just minutes before Atlético Madrid have a big match to play. Time and again over the years we have seen his team hit the ground running in important games in cup competitions. You only have to cast your mind back to this time last year, when Atleti were two up inside six minutes at Montjuïc before going on to draw 4-4 in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final.
Just a couple weeks later and Conor Gallagher had the ball in the back of Thibaut Courtois’ net within a minute when Atlético were attempting to overcome Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League last 16 second leg at home. Diego Costa had a similar pleasure when he self-assisted with two headers before smashing the ball into the roof of the Madrid goal without 60 seconds having passed in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup, played in Estonia. When Liverpool came to the Metropolitano in March of 2020 for a UCL last 16 first leg, Saúl Ñíguez slotted home just four minutes into that tie.
Roughly translated into English as “approach,” planteamiento refers to how teams set themselves up, which can often be seen in the opening moments of matches. When at home, the rousing noise of the Fondo Sur does play its important part, but the fearless nature of how the teams have come out firing at all venues listed (and more) gives more to the planteamiento of the match by the coaching staff.
It’s clear that in the big matches, particularly in knock-out situations, Simeone opts for an aggressive approach out of the blocks, and there’s no team that this works better against than Hansi Flick’s Barcelona. The famed high line coupled with a slight relaxed nature about the La Masia-majority cool kids is a perfect combination for a direct, quick team who have the ability to stun defences. With Lookman and Giuliano Simeone on the flanks of a high front three, the fast starts are very literally possible with that kind of velocity on show.
Yes, on Thursday the opening goal had absolutely zero Atleti contribution, but being 2-0 up against Barcelona inside 14 minutes of a Copa del Rey semi-final doesn’t just happen through luck. El Cholo proves his credentials once more.
But also, yes, thank you very much Mr Joan García.
You’re the Juan for me
“He is widely regarded as the best backup goalkeeper Simeone has had,” said Phil Kitromilides on the world feed commentary for this match.
In a stark contrast to what was going on in between the Barcelona goalposts, Juan Musso put down his best performance since arriving at Atlético Madrid two summers ago. Four shots saved doesn’t look wildly impressive on paper, so let me elaborate on why he was so key to his team’s success tonight.
Of those four stops, one in particular stays in the mind when he rushed out to deny Ferrán Torres with the score still at 2-0. The way he spread himself gave Torres little angle to work with, but the assuredness of the clearance of the ball left the biggest mark. His shot stopping continued this way throughout the match, routinely palming the ball away from danger, giving fans no reason to fret about not seeing the usual frame of Jan Oblak in goal.
Another element that Musso brings to the table is his quick distribution after he claims the ball in his hands. We saw in the build-up to the second goal how he found former Atalanta teammate Lookman, with a kick out of his hands that travelled well over the halfway line. According to fotmob, the Argentine was 8/18 in long ball accuracy which, although only gives him a 44% success rate, it shows a clear intention in how he was to be a key component in disrupting the Barcelona high line.
Fotmob also gave Musso their highest rating of the match with an 8.7 — a number crafted through stats more than feeling. Into the Calderón’s own Adam Saladino gave him a well-deserved 8, likely the highest figure he has received from us to date.
We have seen how Musso has stepped up when needed in the league, and of course the Copa del Rey where he is guaranteed his starts. But without regular playing time, there have been questions over his sharpness, especially with the ball at his feet. After tonight’s performance, there will be no doubt over his ability to help Atleti hold out on this four-goal lead and be the starting goalkeeper should we see Los Rojiblancos in Sevilla at the end of April.
Julián is back, plus more mini-takeaways
- Sixty-five days and 13 matches later, Julián Alvarez finally scores a goal. The phrase “he just needs one to go in off his backside” might apply to the likes of Viktor Gyökeres when needing to end a goal drought, but the truly elite strikers of the world rifle in a belter from outside the box in a cup semi-final against the best team in the competition. At one stage, it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for Alvarez as he missed a sitter with the score at 2-0. Twenty minutes later and all doubts of that affecting his confidence were put to rest. Let’s hope la araña can keep building, as this won’t mean anything if he goes another two months without netting.
- A 4-0 win with 34 percent possession can only be achieved by one club managed by one man. Finally Simeone has the contundencia (the decisiveness to finish off chances) he has been asking for all season. So much has been made of Atleti’s lack of ability to convert chances since the turn of the year, but four goals from 12 shots feels like a job well done, even if it could have been a lot more. Alexander Sørloth, I’m speaking to you.
- When I knew I would be writing the takeaways for this match, I thought about those that I did for the league fixture between the two teams last season, and how Atleti almost found a solution for the left-back issue they were facing at the time. Reinildo was the unlucky soul that day that saw a Lamine Yamal shot deflect off his back and in, but he did so much better than Javi Galán in the two previous meetings with Barcelona. Flash-forward a year and it was the turn of Matteo Ruggeri to face the tricky teen and, as the scoreline suggests, he managed to do a lot better. That was until the Italian decided to do one of his ridiculous backheels at the start of the second half which led to the goal that Barça had (inexplicably) ruled out.
- The last time FC Barcelona were four goals or more down by halftime of a Copa del Rey match was in 1943. On that day, they were 8-0 down against Real Madrid after 45 minutes and ended up losing 11-1. So things could have been worse, eh, cúlers?
- Somebody check Nahuel Molina’s footwear as I think he was playing in flip-flops. In fairness to our resident world champion, there were a number of players who fell victim to the dodgy Metropolitano playing surface, not least (defender) García as his pass back to (goalkeeper) García took a massive bobble before slipping under his foot and across the line. My particular favourite of the Molina slips was in the second half when he was ambling toward the Barça penalty area completely unmarked, and within a blink, was on his ass. He did put in one of his better displays in fairness, but comedy will forever persist with the Argentine.
- Some say Giuliano is still running around somewhere in the Barcelona half, pressing defenders that are well on their way back to Catalunya.
