Match report: Heart-stopping match and historic semi-final place | OneFootball

A heart-stopping match at the Metropolitano, one for the history books. A 1-2 defeat that is enough to secure the seventh trip to the semifinals in Club Atlético de Madrid’s history. With suffering, as it could not have been any other way, in a clash that was a roller coaster of emotions, where in the end, Cholo’s men came out on top.

The game plan was clear for both teams. Managing emotions would be the first blow of the match, with Barça looking to score early and impose a dominance from which Atleti would not be able to break out on the counterattack. Atleti’s plan was the exact opposite: hold firm, let the culés’ early surge fade, and break Barça’s pressure strongly to create danger.

And right from the start, things smiled on Barça, with a huge error from Lenglet, who tried to play the ball back to Musso. Lamine Yamal intercepted it, the ball fell to Ferrán, who set up Yamal alone in front of Musso, and the first goal of the match came with just four minutes played.

Things were not starting well, with so much of the match still to play and half of the advantage earned at Camp Nou wiped out in just four minutes. Things got even worse twenty minutes later, with Barça dominating intensely. They eased off the press, but still controlled the ball.

A giveaway while playing out from the back in the 23rd minute, Pedri threaded a ball through to Ferrán, who finished brilliantly, beating Musso again, leveling the tie and forcing Atleti to reset at that moment.

Two minutes later Fermín got a shot on target and Musso made a huge save, ending up catching Fermín in the face with his boot. Fermín bled and needed medical attention. It was one of the key moments, because it may have prevented the 0-3, and because a little later, with Atleti beginning to stretch the game, we saw Atleti’s goal, the one that would end up deciding the tie.

In the 31st minute, Griezmann flicked the ball on with a master’s instinct toward Marcos Llorente, who charged down the flank, waiting for Lookman, who, perfectly picked out in the middle of the box, finished and scored Atleti’s only goal, the goal that would decide everything.

That goal settled everyone’s nerves and although the suffering did not stop until the final whistle, from that point on Atleti once again felt in control of the tie.

Nerves with a reward at the end

In the second half both teams gave everything. In the 52nd minute Julián Álvarez surged from midfield into the box, but hemmed in by Barça’s defenders, he laid the ball off to Lookman, who struck it hard from outside the area, narrowly missing the goal. 

Then came a key moment in the match. Ferrán scored off a rebound, pouncing on it after a shot from Gavi, making it 1-3 for the moment and leveling the tie. But he collected that rebound from an offside position. VAR flagged it, and it would not be the first time VAR corrected a decision by the officiating team.

Then the substitutions came, with Alex Baena and Nico González entering the field and, a little later, Sorloth (who would be key to the outcome of the match).

In the 70th minute, Gavi caught Ruggeri with an elbow to the eyebrow, leaving him bleeding heavily, though unwilling to leave the field, and in the 76th minute came the decisive moment of what would happen in the match, with Sorloth as the protagonist.

A through ball to the Norwegian led to a clear foul by Eric García. Turpin had the yellow card in his hand, despite Sorloth being through on Joan García and Eric García bringing him down from behind.

At first offside was given, but VAR overruled the decision on the pitch on two counts. It was neither offside, nor was it just a yellow card. In the end, Eric García’s sending-off did not stop Barça’s late push, but there was no reward for them and glory for us.

A defeat that felt like a victory, with Sabina’s song in our blood… what a way to suffer.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.