BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Atletico Madrid scored twice after Barcelona was reduced to 10 men to earn a valuable 2-0 road win and take the advantage in their Champions League quarterfinal on Wednesday.
Barcelona had hemmed Atletico into its box when the hosts received a double blow that left Hansi Flick’s team down a man and behind a goal just before halftime.
The game-changing sequence started when Atletico’s Giuliano Simeone broke free to latch onto
a rare long ball and Barcelona defender Pau Cubarsí knocked him down on the edge of the area with only goalkeeper Joan García to beat. After initially showing Cubarsí a yellow card, the referee changed it to a red following a video review.
It got worse for Barcelona seconds later when Julián Álvarez curled the resulting free kick around the defensive barrier and past a flying García for the 45th-minute lead.
Lamine Yamal and Marcus Rashford tried to rally Barcelona at Camp Nou and kept the pressure on Atletico despite being undermanned.
But that fightback effort was undone when substitute striker Alexander Sorloth shrugged off a challenge by Gerard Martín as he moved to the near post and tapped in a cross from Matteo Ruggeri to double the lead with 20 minutes to play.
The second leg is in Madrid on Tuesday.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
