Atletico take control of Barca tie – winner to face Arsenal or Sporting | OneFootball

Atletico Madrid have taken a commanding lead in their Champions League quarter-final tie against Barcelona, with the winner to face either Arsenal or Sporting CP in the semis.

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Barcelona were believed to be the favourites ahead of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Atletico Madrid, having won three of their previous four meetings this season.

But their hopes of progression to the semis took a major hit as they suffered a 2-0 home defeat to Diego Simeone’s side on Wednesday.

The game didn’t start out too badly for Barcelona, and it looked like just a matter of time until they’d take the lead. But it all fell apart in the 44th minute, as Pau Cubarsi was sent off and Julian Alvarez scored from the subsequent free-kick.

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Despite going down to 10, Barcelona kept pushing for an equaliser in the second half. But a rare foray forward for the away side led to Alexander Sorloth making it 2-0 in the 70th minute.

Barcelona now face a huge task in the second leg, 2-0 down, playing away from home, with Cubarsi serving a suspension and Raphinha still absent through injury.

It’s certainly not impossible that Barcelona could come back, and they’ve overturned worse deficits in the Champions League before. But this is exactly how Atletico would have wanted the tie to go.

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Arsenal need to finish off their own quarter-final tie against Sporting CP before they can start thinking about the semis, but they have at least already faced Atletico once this season.

The Gunners dominated Simeone’s side 4-0 in the League Phase, whereas they haven’t faced Barcelona in a competitive game for more than 10 years, so the former side are more of a known quantity.

Yet many fans might have said the same about Paris Saint-Germain last season, with Arsenal winning 2-0 against the French side in the League Phase only to be eliminated by them in the knockouts.

Regardless of the opponent, Arsenal will face a tough semi-final if they’re able to eliminate Sporting.

On the other side of the bracket, Paris Saint-Germain have a 2-0 lead over Liverpool ahead of a trip to Anfield, and Bayern Munich are taking a 2-1 lead over Real Madrid back to the Allianz Arena.